Tomfoolery: The Order of the Phoenix Experience
by KairiGokuJr
Summary: For Tonks, Remus, and Sirius, being in the Order of Phoenix means not only fighting dark wizards, but also dealing with hard headed teenagers and, usually, each other. Tomfoolery ensues. Tie in series to 5th Year Kix Grass
1. Welcome to the Order

_[A/N: Greetings all! Just a quick note – this is a companion series to my other series "Fifth Year Kix Grass: Hannah Potter". It's not important that you read it (though I do encourage it), but in case you were wondering where some of these characters magically come from that's where. Ciao!]_

"Welcome back," Sirius said as I took my seat at the table. I'd just returned with the other half of the Order from bringing Harry from Privet Drive to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix - Number 12 Grimmauld Place. "Everything worked as planned I assume."

"Of course. And it's just like I told you, their house is just as neat and pristine on the inside as it is on the outside," I said. "Weirdoes."

"While I'd love to continue this discussion of muggle lawn care and cleanliness, we've got a meeting to run, Tonks," Snape said.

"Sorry," I said rolling my eyes. "But on the note of the advance guard, I don't think Moody should be allowed to be in charge of any expeditions that involve flight."

"Just because _you_ can't see inside of a cloud. . ." Moody grumbled.

"In other news," Snape went on, "we recently-."

_"Take that back my freckles are cute!"_ I heard Hannah yell upstairs.

". . . Anyway, we received word that Voldemort is gathering followers-."

_"I didn't want to go to that stupid party anyway!"_ Harry shouted this time.

_"Fine well next time I'll let you rot in your little cupboard under the stairs,"_ Hannah said.

Next to me Remus shook his head. "Oh, Hannah, that was not kind to say at all."

_"And you didn't think it was so stupid when you were letting Kristen grind all over you,"_ Hannah went on.

I glanced over at Sirius who was looking just as confused.

"Wonder what that's all about," Arthur said.

"Having a meeting of their own," Kingsley chuckled.

_"Oi! You two shut up and act like you've got some God damned sense!"_ Hermione interjected.

"Always the voice of reason," Remus said with a nod.

"Harry started it!" Hannah said.

_"I did not! You did and you know it!"_ Harry said.

_"Yes! It's always Hannah's fault! Hannah always gets in trouble! Well alright, Snape, blame it all on me because it's all my fault!"_ Hannah said.

_"Don't compare me to SNAPE of all people! What's wrong with you? I am deeply offended!" _Harry protested.

"As well he should be," Sirius muttered. I chuckled.

_"Why not? You've got the same nasty, messy greasy hair!"_ Hannah yelled.

_"MY HAIR IS NOT GREASY!"_ Harry protested.

"Maybe we should send someone to check on them," I suggested.

Suddenly there was the sound of something shattering to ground.

_"You bastard! I'll kill you!"_ Hannah shouted.

"I second that motion to send someone upstairs," Emmaline said.

"Just wait a moment," Remus said.

A moment later we distinctly heard someone say "hug it out" and the yelling ceased.

"Sibling rivalry at its best," Remus said.

"At its worst. Never heard them like that before," Molly said. "A bit of self-control. That's what they both need."

For a while the meeting continued on as planned, at least for a few minutes then we distinctly heard a squeal outside the door of kitchen. We all looked over.

"So, who wants to go see who's the leader of the eavesdroppers?" Snape asked.

"Well it was definitely a girl so it was either Hermione, Hannah, or Ginny," I deduced. "If it's Hannah or Hermione then Sirius should go check. If it's Ginny send Arthur."

"Sounds fair," Moody said.

"Well how can you tell who is who?" Arthur asked.

"And why do I get Hermione too?" Sirius asked. "I think if it's Hermione, Remus should go."

_"That cat is freakishly strong,"_ Hannah whispered.

"That's you Sirius," I said patting him on the back. Sirius groaned and rose from the table. He opened the kitchen doors. Of course, from where he was standing he didn't see anything but Crookshanks. For the rest of us sitting in the kitchen we could see Hannah dangling upside down over Sirius' head. Holding her by the foot was Harry, and someone was holding him up over the banister.

Remus face plamed himself.

"Sirius," Molly said pointing.

Sirius looked up.

"What the deuce?" Sirius asked.

"Hello, Sirius!" Harry said casually.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, you know, just hanging around," Hannah said.

Sirius face palmed himself, as did several of the people in the kitchen.

"I get the feeling there's going to be a lot of that this summer," I said to Arthur.

"Sadly," he replied.

"Seriously, what are you up to? Not eavesdropping are you?"

"Of course not," Hannah said dismissively.

"Don't be ridiculous," Harry replied.

"We were playing Monkey's in a barrel and that got boring so now we're playing extreme wizard's in a barrel," Hannah said.

". . . Stop it. Now," Sirius said. "I know what you're up to and it stops now."

"Okay," Harry said, his face turning red. "Crap."

"Harry, don't you dare," Hannah warned.

"I can't. . . Hold. . . On. . ." Harry said. His fingers let loose of her jeans.

I looked away as I heard her crash to the ground landing on top of Sirius.

"Harry you failure!" she shouted.

"I'm sorry!" Harry said as he climbed over the railing.

"And you call yourself an athlete," Hannah said.

"Hey. . .Goober. . . Can you get off me?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, sorry," Hannah said climbing to her feet.

"Go upstairs. Stay up there until we're done," Sirius said getting to his feet, straining as he did.

"Are you alright?" Hannah asked, concernedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. . ." he said. "Oh. . . My back. . ."

"I'm sorry, Sirius, but. . . It's all Harry's fault," Hannah said looking up at who I could only assume was Harry.

"What? You lying son of-!"

"Hey, we have the same parents!" Hannah shouted. "And I'm not a son in any respect of the word!"

"Both of you stop it, now!" Sirius shouted at us. Suddenly, Hannah gasped in offense and dashed upstairs.

Sirius dragged himself into the kitchen and slumped back into his chair.

"Oh. . . My back," he groaned.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of parenthood," Arthur said. "And you'll have to deal with them all summer."

"Yippee," Sirius groaned.

"At least they'll be entertaining," I said encouragingly. "You know, I'd just discourage any more games of extreme wizards in a barrel."

"Thank you, Nymphadora-."

"Tonks," I corrected Snape.

"Thank you for your comedic input, but as all the children have left, it would be prudent for us to move this meeting along without the interruption of childish antics," Snape said.

"I'll tone down the comedy when you pull the stick out your ass," I said giving him a thumb up.

Snape leered at me. Molly whacked me upside the head with a wooden spoon.

"Honestly, Tonks," she said. "Language."

Moody went on to talk. I listened for a moment then I happened to glance down to my hands.

_How did my finger nails get so dirty?_ I asked myself. I'd taken a shower this morning and then only places I'd been today were Privet Drive, which was pristine, and Malfoy Manor which was also pretty clean. Other than that, I'd been here. Then again, Grimmauld was old and pretty dirty, well dusty. It was properly lived in anymore. Dusty settles everywhere.

My next off day I would be here helping to get this place in tip top shape. I would never tolerate dirty finger nails again.

". . . Nymphadora are you listening?" Moody asked.

I looked up slowly as my face blushed a deep shade of red.

". . . I was but then my brain went in a completely different direction. You know how it is. I have the attention span of a goldfish," I said with a laugh, trying to be calm. I hadn't heard a word he'd said at all. "And it's Tonks by the way."

"Constant vigilance, Nymphadora-."

"Tonks," I corrected him.

"Constant vigilance, Tonks. Without it you're more vulnerable to attack," Moody said.

"Is that why you were locked in a trunk for nine months?" I asked, though I had only meant to think it. Moody glared at me. "Sorry, Alastor. That was uncalled for and completely disrespectful. I didn't mean to say it aloud. I mean- You know, I just kind of, well, what it is is that, well, er. . . I'm beginning to realize why they say silence is golden."

"Well spotted," Snape said.

I rolled my eyes.

"I think it's time to call this meeting to a close before Miss Tonks' has a brain hemorrhage from all the information she's had to absorb this evening," Moody said.

Everyone piled out of Grimmauld and I slammed my head onto the table.

"Embarrassing," Sirius said.

"At least my children weren't out in the hall playing monkey's in a barrel," I said.

"True," Sirius said. "You know, I remember Hannah and Harry getting along a lot better when I last saw them."

"I don't know what to tell you. I have neither children nor siblings and therefore no experience to draw from either way," I said.

"Useless," Sirius said.


	2. Role Model

Any members of the Order that were at Grimmauld were at Molly's immediate disposal, even me. While everyone else had taken to doing the extreme cleaning around the house, I'd decided to tackle the job of dishes, as long, I promised Molly, I didn't break any.

Just as I finished putting the last of them in the cupboard, Hannah walked into the room, a bandage wound tightly around her arm.

I looked over to her and smiled. "What happened to your arm?"

"I got into a fight with a grandfather clock that likes to shoot bolts at people and I lost," she said.

I chuckled. "Is your arm alright?"

"Yeah, it's a bit sore though," she said as she sat down on the dining room table. "So. . . Your name is Nymphadora right?"

I shuttered. "Just call me Tonks like I said. It sounds better and uses less oxygen."

"I like my name but it's not very original. I think it was meant to be the female equivalent of Harry or something," Hannah said.

"Well it suits you fine," I assured her. ". . . You know I knew you when you were little at Hogwarts."

Hannah shook her head. "I swear I can't remember you. I wish I could though."

"No you don't," I laughed. "I was horribly awkward and children ran at the sight of me. I was clumsy, I hurt myself and other people often. Not to mention I was mouthy. It's funny how much I've changed and I graduated less than 10 years ago."

"You didn't earn points with teachers I'm guessing?" Hannah asked.

"Zero," I said.

"I know how that is. The only person in the entire history of Hogwarts with a worse detention record than me is my father," Hannah said. "Before I planned on breaking that record but I've decided to put the bad behavior behind me for good."

"Not that I'm discouraging your bad behavior, but why?" I asked.

"OWL's are this year and I'm confident I'll do well but, I want to go into potions and teaching which requires two years of student teaching and well, you've met Snape. He's not the easiest character to deal with is he?" Hannah asked.

"He's not so bad if you get used to him," I said. Sadly, I still hadn't gotten used to him. Every time I opened my mouth around him, it was like he had a stick up his ass with my name on it.

"I guess if you _have_ to put up with him," Hannah said with a sigh.

"Well if you go into potions you're going to have to put up with him aren't you?" I asked her.

"I suppose," she replied dryly, tracing circles on the table with her index finger.

Remus walked into the kitchen and looked directly at Hannah.

"Hannah, there you are. You know Molly is looking for you," he said.

"I don't want to clean anymore," she complained. "I want to be away from all the dust and the dirt and the evil clocks."

"Do you really think it makes a difference to Molly?" Remus asked with a sigh.

"But I don't want to," she whined on.

"That's too bad. Go to the drawing room," Remus said.

". . . No," Hannah grumbled under her breath.

Remus cocked and eyebrow at her. "Excuse me."

"I'm going before I dare invoke the wrath of Remus Lupin," Hannah said sliding off the table. She walked out of the kitchen and I shook my head.

"Is she always like that?" I asked.

"When she's not on the brink of a psychotic break. Then she gets anxious and she cries a lot and has panic attacks," Remus said. "I just take her cheekiness as a sign that there's nothing wrong with her."

"Weird," I said. "Anyway, how've you been?"

"Fine actually, though I'm sure with all the children here now my mental stability is going to slowly diminish. If you stick around them long enough I'm sure yours will too," Remus said.

"I look forward to going crazy with you," I said.

"And I appreciate the company," Remus said." Though Sirius is already beginning to snap if you've noticed."

"I haven't. I think he's in a permanent state of mental instability," I said. "I think he always has been."

"Fair observation," Remus said with a nod.

"So, tell me more about Hannah. Sirius likes to go on and on about Harry, but not so much about her," I said. "I know that she likes potions and gets motion sickness when she flies."

"Yeah, I know that too," Remus said with a shutter. When we'd brought her to Grimmauld, no sooner had her feet touched the ground did she vomit all over the back of Remus' cloak and the sidewalk. I found it to be hilarious but Remus did not.

"So what else should I know about her?" I asked.

Remus shrugged. "She's entertaining to be sure. She's also a stress monster."

"And by stress monster you mean she causes stress in other people or in herself?" I asked.

"Herself, though I guess the former is also true," Remus said. I smiled. "I've never seen a 13 year old stress themselves out so much that it sent them into a depression."

"And she was depressed why?" I asked.

"Well, she was taking extra classes with a time turner and not getting much sleep, and then there was the fact that she had a bit of drama with Hermione and Harry and Ron and they stopped talking to her," Remus said.

"And Dementors on top of that watching Hogwarts for Sirius right?" I asked. That definitely wouldn't help anyone's mental state.

"You also forgot," Hannah said stepping in, "that you lied to me, remember, Lupin?"

"Lied about what?" I asked curiously.

"Well he told me he was friends with my parents but he didn't tell me Sirius was his best friend or that he'd murdered their friend Peter or that Sirius was the reason they were dead or that he was my god father," Hannah said. "I know now Peter is alive and tried to kill Sirius and is the reason my parents are dead, but at the time that's what I believed to be true and what he believed to be true and he didn't tell me. I didn't have any idea why Sirius was pursuing me and no one would tell me. Lupin was the only person in the whole school I could trust and when I found out he had lied to me. . . I felt hurt. Really hurt."

"What a git you are, Remus," I said. "Going and making everything worse like that."

"I suppose he was right to not tell me though. After I found out what I thought was the truth I did go looking for Sirius. I wanted to kill him," Hannah said.

"What's all this talk of killing me?" Sirius asked walking into the kitchen. "Haven't you gotten your water yet? Shouldn't you be I the drawing room?"

"They're about to spray for doxies. I don't want to be there," Hannah said innocently. "Please don't make me go."

Sirius stared hard at her for a long moment and then smiled. ". . . Alright."

"Sirius," Remus objected.

"I mean, you will go into the drawing room and help them spray for doxies," Sirius said, attempting to be firm. Hannah groaned. "Go on now."

Hannah walked out of the room, glaring at Lupin as she went.

"How does she do that, get her way all of the time I mean?" Sirius asked.

"The same way her father did," Remus said.

"At this point I think it might just be easier to let her do what she wants," Sirius said.

"Sirius you can't just let Hannah run around all willy-nilly letting her do whatever she wants. You have to show some sort of parental authority," I said.

"Harry listens to everything I say," Sirius sighed.

"Well Lily didn't listen to you much either now did she?" Remus asked. Sirius nodded.

"Her impression of me got better in fifth year," he said.

"And in any event you all say how much James and Harry are alike. It makes sense that Harry would take to you better if you were his dad's best friend," I said. "And Hannah's a girl, you're a guy. She just won't listen to you sometimes because all girls have the 'all-guys-are-idiots-and-should-never-be-listened-too' instinct. Clearly she'd listen to a girl better."

Sirius and Remus exchanged glances and looked back at me.

"What's that look about?" I asked backing away slightly, as if they were about to attack me.

"You're a girl, Tonks," Sirius pointed out.

"Oh, no, no, no. I know what you're getting at and I'm a terrible role model," I said. "I can't teach her much of anything aside from how to properly fall downstairs without hurting herself and that doesn't even work one hundred percent of the time."

"But you're very smart and have more common sense than me," Sirius said.

"Doesn't take much," I pointed out.

"And Hannah likes you already," Remus said.

"You're a girl closer to her age than anyone else in the house. I'll bet she'll watch you just to see what you do and then you may find her doing it later on down the road," Sirius said.

"So you're like a role-model already whether you like it or not," Remus said.

"Yes but now you'll be making me try to set a good example," I said.

"Well you should try anyway," Sirius said. "It'll be good for you."

"I think you're just trying to shirk your responsibilities off on me," I said.

"Which is why I can't be a good role model," Sirius said. "I don't want her to start shirking her responsibilities."

"Hey," Harry said walking into the kitchen, "don't mean to alarm anyone. . . but we were cleaning the curtains and Hannah. . . Hannah totally got attacked by doxies and. . . she mentioned something about being allergic to them. . ."

Harry made something that sounded like a cross between hacking and wheezing every few words and hadn't stopped scratching at his arm since he'd walked into the room.

"Did you get bitten too?" Lupin asked.

Harry wheezed. "Don't think so."

Sirius shook his head.

Lupin walked over to him and pulled up Harry's sleeve. Sure enough, there was a bite mark on his arm and it was completely covered in hives.

I sighed. "I'm guessing that if Hannah is allergic then you're allergic as well."

"Come on," Lupin said pulling Harry from the room.

"Never a dull moment," I said.


	3. The Leak

I was a desk girl in the auror office. There were several reasons for this:

I'd only been on the job a year. I was still considered a rookie and therefore incapable of doing field work in the eyes of my older coworkers.

I was dead clumsy and Rufus feared for my safety and the safety of those around me. I'd requested a desk job on Dumbledore's orders as of late. Not because he needed me on a moment's notice and it was easy to get away if I did paperwork, but because he also feared for my safety and the safety of those around me. Lastly, I was a lot smarter than I looked and behaved. I was an incredibly quick thinker. I could solve puzzles easily as well. I wasn't John Nash or anything I was just smart.

"Tonks," A voice sang at my door. I looked over to see Becca smiling at me holding a large file.

"Hey, Becca," I said.

Becca was the personal assistant to the minister of magic. She loathed spending so much time with Fudge saying that he was a prat and that politicians were a bore. She was one of my best friends around the office and one of the few people who didn't think I was incompetent.

"I've some stuff for you to look over," Becca said handing me the file. "Intercepted owls and all that nonsense. We need you to do some code breaking. The papers with the red sticky notes need to go to Kingsley. They're for the Black case."

"Okay," I said.

"So. . . What have you been up to?" she asked.

"Just work. You know me. I have no social life," I joked. These days, my social life involved me wrangling up rowdy teenagers.

"I'm heading down to Hogsmeade after work. Wanna come with me?" she asked.

"No, I'll pass. I'm pretty tired today. I think I'm just going to head home and pass out early," I said.

"Honestly, Tonks you need to get out of that house. If you don't then I'm going to make you," she said with a wink. Becca walked off.

I started looking through the papers lazily. I was only here for another thirty minutes before I was off work and I was entirely uninterested in what these papers were about at the moment. I wasn't even going to get through them all tonight.

Then there came a knock on my cubicle.

I looked up to see Lucius Malfoy. I sighed.

"What can I help you with today, Malfoy?" I asked.

"I'm here to inform you that you're taking on all of Dawlish's current assignments," Lucius said.

"Don't you work with the school board?" I asked.

"Yes I do," he said.

"Then shouldn't you be there? Away from me?" I asked. I got visits like this from him everyone once in a while. It was like since I was shunned member of his extended family then he had the right to come and harass me. I'd gotten pretty good at ignoring him.

"We've recently had a student murdered at Hogwarts. Dawlish is the leading the case to find out who killed Diggory," Lucius said.

"Oh. . ." I said. I was shocked that he had a legitimate reason for seeing me this time. "Well fine, whatever. I'll get to work with his stuff tomorrow."

That meant I was getting home late since I had to finish all the work Becca had just given me.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Lucius asked.

"Is it working?" I asked, hopefully.

"Now don't be that way Miss Tonks. We're family after all," Lucius said.

I scoffed.

"As far as your wife goes I'm nothing more than her filthy, useless 'mudblood' niece. A burn mark on a curtain. Since when did you claim me as kin anyway? My own mother doesn't even like me all that much," I said. My mother loved me alright, but even she was Slytherin and having ended up in Hufflepuff, well it was just plain embarrassing on her part.

"Is that so?" Lucius asked.

"You don't have to like someone to love them," I said. "Now if you would please go away."

"You had better watch that snippy attitude of yours," Lucius said.

"How about you just go away? That seems like a more plausible alternative to this debacle," I said.

Lucius leaned down to me.

"You're not in a position to have a snippy attitude," he said.

"And why is that, sir?" I asked.

"Anyone found to be conspiring with Dumbledore in order to over throw Fudge will sacked," Lucius said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, turning away from him.

"Of course you don't. . . My mistake," he said. "Yes, you were far too young before to be helping Dumbledore. Now that he's back at it again he wouldn't bring you on board. . . Would he?"

"Maybe I accidentally said something. I'm notorious for that," I said, the next evening when I stopped back by Grimmauld Place after dinner.

"I doubt it. You're more intelligent than to let it slip like that," Remus assured me.

"Perhaps there's something we're missing," Sirius said. "Something obvious. It's the obvious things we always miss."

Remus and I exchanged. Neither of us had a clue.

Just then Hannah walked into the kitchen carrying the owls water bowls.

". . . HANNAH!" Sirius shouted suddenly.

Hannah dropped the water bowl to the floor, spilling it everywhere, effectively terrifying her.

"Yes?" she asked, her hand placed over her chest as if that would slow it's beating.

"You were at Malfoy's house for a good part of the summer weren't you?" he asked.

"Well yes, I mean, his parents were away most of the time, but I was with Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini so it was usually just the four of us," she said.

"Yeah, whatever," Sirius said dismissively. "You didn't mention the Order to anyone there did you?"

She shook her head. "No. I didn't even know about it until I got here."

"Are you sure?" he asked as she tossed a towel to the ground to pick up the water.

"One hundred percent," she said as she picked the towel up from the ground. "Is that all?"

Sirius nodded. "I suppose. Go back to talking to your little girlfriend about boys or whatever," he said waving her off.

Hannah chuckled. "Actually, I'm reading a book about advances in the field of alchemy. It's all pretty interesting. There was actually some guy who was able to take a twig and turn it into a bridge that was half a mile long."

". . . Right. . . You have fun with that," Sirius said.

Hannah took the water bowl and walked out of the kitchen.

"Love her to death, but she couldn't be more like her mother," Sirius said.

"And that's a bad thing?" Remus asked.

"It makes her like, slightly annoying," Sirius said.

"How can you say that? Hannah's sweet. I like her," I said in her defensive.

"I like her too, then again her mother was my best friend and I also used to teach Hannah so I'm probably not the best person to get a read off her from," Remus said.

"Way to cop out, Remus," I said.

"My apologies. Next time I'll be sure to side with you," he said. I smiled.

"What about me?" Sirius asked.

"I'm always on your side, Sirius, just as long as I don't tell anyone I know where you are we're square," Remus said.

Suddenly from the main stair well there was a crash. Then there was the sound of Hannah shouting.

"She's going to wake that portrait if she doesn't keep her voice down," Remus said as we all got to her feet.

"She likes to yell – that's another thing she and Lily have in common," Sirius said.

We walked into the stairwell and Hannah was hanging from it upside down again, this time looking livid.

"What the bloody hell happened here?" Sirius asked, dashing up the stairs to her.

"Your ignorant godson and the twins is what happened," she groaned. "Ugh, when I get my hands on them. . ."

Sirius helped her over the railing as we made our way up to them.

"Now, would you like to explain what happened? Calmly?" he asked.

Hannah took a deep breath that the twins had apparated and startled her over the railing and Harry and had left her there to dangle claiming that she had drawn a mustache on his face (which she vehemently denied).

"She's quite cross," I said.

"She gets that way," Remus said with a nod.

"They're just boys. They're idiots. It was a bit of harmless fun," Sirius said. Hannah groaned as she got to her feet. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, I just knew you were going to take his side. That's all," she replied.

Sirius stared at her, confused. "What do you mean you knew I would take his side?"

"Nothing. Never mind. I just want to go back to home. I'm having a miserable time here," she said, her voice unsteady. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

Hannah walked into her room, closing it behind her. Sirius walked over to us.

"Trouble in paradise?" I asked.

"Yes, but I don't know why," Sirius said. "To be honest with you, she's just seemed to be more and more irritated with me as time passes."

"Well you're not playing favorites are you, because it sounded like that's what she was getting at," I said.

"Of course not," Sirius said.

"I dunno. You were just talking about how she was slightly annoying," Remus said.

"Harry's slightly annoying too. Who leaves their sister to dangle from a railing like that?" Sirius asked.

"The spawn of James Potter," Remus said.

Sirius nodded. "You know, now that I'm older I'm beginning to realize why I thought the teachers never had a sense of humor."


	4. How to Piss Off A 15 Year Old Girl

"I can't believe this," I complained to Kingsley at work the next morning. "This is the second time this month Cornelius has asked to see me. I can't understand why."

"I didn't want to tell you this," Kingsley started, "but I heard that they were sending a few people to sit at Azkaban while they reorganized prisoners next week."

I groaned. "And I'm assuming they're sending the aurors lowest on the totem pole to do that."

"Sorry," he said.

"Honestly. They couldn't find any decent Hit Wizards to do this?" I asked.

"They had decent Hit Wizards, but after Sirius escaped they felt that security there was left better in the hands of more skilled personnel," Kingsley said.

"Skilled personnel my ass. This is because I said 'but I like Dumbledore' at out last department meeting. And also probably because I'm like 12 compared to the rest of you, no offense," I said.

"Stop fretting," Kingsley said. "It'll turn out alright."

"They'd better give me time off for this, or at least a decent assignment. If I have to look at one more Sirius Black sighting from Nepal I kick a puppy," I said.

I reached Fudge's office and went inside.

He was sitting at his desk, like always. Becca standing at his side, clipboard in hand.

Fudge smiled at me.

"Auror Tonks, good to see you again. Have a seat," he said.

I took two steps into the office and tripped over his umbrella stand. Falling to the ground.

_*Umbrella stands will be the death of me.*_

I fixed the umbrella and climbed to my feet.

"Sorry, sir," I said.

"No trouble, what with your reputation I should have prepared," he said.

On the outside I was smiling. On the inside, I wanted to hit him in his smug little face.

"Anyway, I wanted to speak to you about some news I received recently," Fudge said. "It's disturbing to think that anyone in the auror office could be in league with Dumbledore, especially an outstanding auror such as yourself, but someone has taken the liberty of informing me that you may in fact be in league with not only Dumbledore but the Potters as well."

That someone was definitely going by the name Lucius Malfoy.

"Sir, I can assure you that these accusations aren't true," I said.

"Well Rufus tells me that a few weeks ago the two of you had a bit of a disagreement on the issue of Dumbledore," Fudge said.

It hadn't been much of a disagreement. It had something more along the lines of me fangirling Dumbledore at an inappropriate time.

"I was being more sympathetic, you see, I don't feel it's been appropriate for the media to attack him the way that it has. The ministry can handle its business with him without splashing it across the front page is all," I said. "I meant no disrespect."

"And you are not in league with Dumbledore?" Fudge said.

"Absolutely not," I said.

I was so impressed with myself I couldn't stand it. My mother always told me Black's knew how to tell a good lie.

"Well, good," he said. "In other news, we'd like to put you on temporary leave. Paid of course. Next week, we'll be setting out you and Dawlish to guard Azkaban prison for the week while we adjust our high security level. Please use the time off to mentally prepare."

That was his fancy way of saying "get some balance before Monday."

"Of course sir," I said.

"I don't wish to be seeing you until then Miss Tonks," he said. "Have a good day."

"You too sir," I said.

I rose from my seat and left without incident.

As quickly as I could, I apparated to Grimmauld Place and walked right in through the front door to the kitchen.

"Guess who gets to guard Azkaban prison for a week?" I said collapsing down into a chair.

"Oh, how'd you land that crap job?" Sirius asked.

"I'm related to you is how," I said. "Oh, and by the way, Lucius Malfoy is told Fudge I was in cahoots with Voldemort. He's gonna learn eventually that snitches get stitches."

"Angry then are you?" Remus asked.

"Well spotted," I replied. "But what have you been up to today?"

"Nothing much really. However, we did just have an interesting conversation with Harry. Apparently he's caught the attention of some Slytherin girl and it got me to thinking of all the girls I dated in Hogwarts," Sirius said.

"Technically you only _dated _one girl. The number of girls you violated is a larger more terrifying number," Remus said.

""I wonder whatever happened to Veronica," Sirius said.

I thought for a long moment.

"She was the tall dark haired girl wasn't she?" I asked. I was really young when Sirius and Remus had been in Hogwarts, but I remembered just a few of his friends.

"That would be her. The only girl I ever loved. I was with her right up until they chucked me in Azkaban," Sirius said.

"Hannah says Danielle goes to Hogwarts now," Remus said.

"Wow, Danielle, really? She was no older than Harry and Hannah," Sirius said. "She was Veronica's niece. Her parents were murdered by Lestrange unfortunately. Veronica and I were raising her."

"From what I've been told, they lived in the states for the longest time and moved back just a few months ago," Remus said. "I'm sure we'll be hearing from her eventually, if Dumbledore has interest in her rejoining the order."

Sirius nodded. "So, Tonks, did you have anyone special in Hogwarts?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I dated Bill once in fourth year, but that was as special as they got. I dated a ton of losers. I was the sleezy kind of girl who wore short-shorts and halter tops all the time and only attracted the wrong sort of guys."

Just as I finished my sentence Hannah walked into the kitchen wearing short-shorts and a halter top.

Sirius' expression was both horrified and priceless.

"What are you wearing?" he asked as Hannah reached up to the cabinet.

"Clothes," she replied cheekily.

"You dress like that while you're at school?" he asked.

"If the occasion calls for it," she replied.

"And what occasion would that be?" Sirius asked.

"Let's say it's 90 degrees and I'd like to avoid a heatstroke," Hannah said, alluding to the current temperature of the smoldering house we were currently trapped in.

Sirius shook his head. "That's not clothing. That's an invitation."

If there was one thing you didn't say to a combative teenage girl like Hannah it was that.

"An invitation to what?" she asked, crossing her arms and cocking her head to one side defensively.

"To the small bit you are covering up," he said.

"Oh, give me a break!" I said.

I looked over to Remus who could tell this was about to be a train wreck.

"You know most blokes these days are only after one thing you know," Sirius said.

"I had no idea," Hannah replied, obviously annoyed.

"You're a smart girl, Hannah," Sirius said. "I don't expect you to dress like a tart."

"A tart?" she asked. The pissed off 15 year old meter was rising.

"You'll only attract those kind of blokes dressed that way," Sirius said.

"Well, maybe that's what I want then," Hannah said.

Remus' jaw dropped and I quickly clamped my hand over my mouth to keep my gasp in. Had she really just said that to Sirius?

Sirius' face twisted in horror at her comment. "Hannah!"

"What? Would you have me dress like nun then?" she asked. "Should I join a convent while I'm at it? How miserable and shut in do you want me to be before you can be happy?"

Sirius leered at her. He was definitely just as angry as Hannah had been.

Hannah had been so sweet and funny when she arrived and Sirius had always been pretty lighthearted. This fight they were in the middle of was just completely horrifying.

"I think you need to go upstairs and change your clothes and your attitude," Sirius said.

"Bite me," she replied walking back upstairs.

For a moment the room was silent.

I felt like I should say something and from the look on Remus' face he did too, but what could we say?

"Did you hear the mouth on that girl?" Sirius finally asked.

"I'm sure she didn't mean that," Remus said. "She was just upset."

"But does that give the right to talk to people that way?" Sirius asked. "And did you see what she was wearing?"

"You don't think you were a little tough on her?" I asked.

"She shouldn't be dressing like that. She's 15 years old," Sirius said.

"And that's the way they dress. Besides you can't expect her to walk around wearing a jumper all the time. It's 80 degrees outside and even hotter in here," I pointed out.

"It would make me feel better," Sirius said.

"Yeah well she's 15. She doesn't care much about your opinion," I said.

"I don't like it," Sirius said.

"Get over it," I said. "You agree with me, don't you, Remus?"

"Actually, I think I'll have to agree with Sirius on this one. You have to admit her clothes don't leave much to the imagination," Remus said.

"And 15 year old boys can imagine a lot," Sirius said.

"They do a lot too," Remus said.

"Exactly my point! No one knows better than I what 15 year old boys are after," Sirius said.

"You said something to her that upset her and you've obviously done something to upset her in addition to your spat," I said. "I think it might be a good idea to go talk to her."

"About what?" he asked.

"Well, for starters you could apologize for calling her a tart," Remus said. "That was out of line."

"True," Sirius said.

"And then just ask her what you've done that bugging her," I said.

"I haven't done anything wrong," Sirius said.

"Surrogate parent or biological parent or godparent – parents are always wrong in the eyes of their children," I said. "And do as little talking as possible. Let her talk."

Sirius frowned at me. I pointed him away. He got up from the table and walked upstairs.

"What would he do without you?" Remus asked.

"He would be a terrible parent," I said. "I may not know a lot about being a parent but if there's one thing I know about, it's being a 15 year old girl."

"Lucky him, he has you," Remus said.

"Yeah, I'm a pretty hot commodity if I do say so myself," I said.


	5. Act Your Age

I sat upside down on the couch in the lounge, staring at the fire place, clearing my head, dizzy with boredom from having time off from work, and also from hanging upside down.

"You think that very wise?" the unmistakable voice of Remus asked entering the room.

"What?" I asked.

"Hanging upside down on the couch that way," he said.

"Perhaps," I said.

"Well that's fine and all but you're wearing a skirt. It's not very lady like," Remus said.

"Ah, yes, but whoever said I was lady like," I replied. "All the same, I think it'd be rather inappropriate for me to be flashing my knickers to current residents of this house."

"This is also true," Remus said.

I flipped myself right side up and got to my feet.

The head rush was massive. I took a step, got dizzy and fell over. Lucky for me Remus caught me just before I hit the ground.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Well I didn't hit the floor this time so I should say so," I said.

"It's unsafe for you to be hanging upside down on the couch. It'll make you dizzy," Remus said.

"Yes, but lucky me, I've you to catch me if I fall," I said sweetly. At saying this I felt myself blush. Was I flirting with Remus?

_Of course not, that's absurd. Silly Tonks, you're losing it. I was just joking with him after all._

I was able to stand on my own two feet.

"Thank you, kind sir," I said.

"Happy to help, Miss," he said.

Remus and I walked into the kitchen where Hannah was currently laughing at a peeved Sirius.

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"Nothing, he's just being a baby," Hannah said walking over to us. "Anyway, I was reading this book earlier and I found out that if your hand is bigger than your face you have cancer."

Intrigued, Remus and I both brought out hands up to our faces to check and then – WHAM! Hannah slapped us both in the face with our own hands. Hannah fell to the floor in a puddle of laughter.

"Don't feel bad, she got me too," Sirius replied.

"It was excellent. I saw Dumbledore do that to Snape and McGonagall once when I was four. It's just one of those things from your childhood that you don't forget," she said.

"It's kind of mean. You hit me really hard," Sirius replied.

"Actually you hit yourself," Hannah said.

"Cheeky children go to bed early," Sirius replied.

"Awe, but she hasn't had cake yet," Ginny replied in my defense.

"How old are you now, Ginny?" I asked, remembering that it was her birthday today.

"14. When is your birthday?" Ginny replied.

"June 30th. I'm 24 at the moment," she replied.

"Really? You seem a bit mature to ne 24," Ginny said.

"Then again, Sirius is a bit immature to be 35 now isn't he?" Hannah asked with a giggle.

"You think Tonks is more mature than me?" Sirius asked.

"Well sure she falls down a fair bit more, but you, Sirius, you're filled with this childlike wonder," Hannah said.

"Guess that means I win," I said proudly.

"Yay, winning!" Ginny said.

"Yes, yes, now, Hannah, pretend you have some common sense and decency and get off the floor with that skirt on," Sirius said.

"But it's so cool down here," she said.

"Don't argue, just get up," he said.

With a sigh she got to her feet and took a chair next to Remus. "How's your nose?"

"Spectacular," he said.

"Hannah, could you go and get the twins from upstairs, please," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Sure thing," she replied. She got up from her seat and dashed upstairs.

"I don't understand it. How does she do everything _you_ say but I always have listen to her whine before she listens to me," Sirius said.

"One word – fear," Ginny said.

"Yeah, you're too easy on Hannah for her to be afraid of you," Harry said.

"Don't be silly. Hannah's afraid of me," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Yes she is," all the children rang out at once.

"If I had a galleon for every time Hannah's said 'I can't because if do Mrs. Weasley will kill me' I'd be pretty wealthy by now," Hermione said.

"Yeah, who knows, without you making her afraid Mrs. Weasley, Hannah might be a crack whore – I mean, drug dealing prostitute by now," Harry said.

"No way. She did that?" Hannah asked as she and the twins entered the room.

"Twice," Fred said.

"What a remarkable feat. I shall have to remember to commend Emily on this. I could never do it once, let alone twice," Hannah said as she took her seat next to Remus back. "That's absolutely amazing."

"I'm constantly amazed by her talents," Fred said.

"It wasn't even happening to me and I amazed," George added.

"Good gracious," Hannah said.

"What are you lot going on about?" Sirius asked.

Hannah giggled. "Stuff."

"What kind stuff?" Sirius asked.

"Stuff-stuff," Hannah said.

Sirius's eyes narrowed in on her.

"Just let it got Sirius. Either she's talking about something she ought not to be talking about or she's just being silly," Harry said. "Either way she won't give you a straight answer."

The doors to Grimmauld burst open and in walked Kingsley.

"Tonks! There you are! I thought you'd be at your flat," he said.

"No. I'm here most of the time these days," I said.

"You've got to get to the ministry now. Fudge is going off about Dawlish's case," Kingsley said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"That person Malfoy told you probably had nothing to do with it suddenly has a lot to do with it. He's this close to launching a full investigation," Kingsley said.

I nearly gave myself a headache, straining my eyes to not look down at Hannah.

"Oh damn it all," I said getting up from the table. "I'm sorry I can't stay, Ginny. Happy birthday."

I came around and hugged her.

"It's alright," Ginny said.

I dashed out of Grimmauld and apparated to the Ministry to see what all the noise was about.

I stepped off the empty elevator into the auror office. I could see the rest of the aurors standing there quietly. Fudge was going on about something that he seemed to be rather excited about.

As I walked up someone grabbed my arm. I looked over.

"Becca," I whispered. She pulled me aside.

"Fudge seems to think that Hannah Potter killed Diggory," she whispered.

"But she's just a little girl. Why should she kill anyone?" I asked.

"Thinks she's cracked like Dumbledore," Becca said. "I think he's the one that's cracked going after a child like that."

"If you're not doing any other work I want you investigating Potter. Find out who her friends are, her enemies, her favorite school subject, any possible motive she may've had," Fudge said.

I sighed, which was a mistake. Fudge looked up at me.

"Ah, Miss Tonks. Wonderful for you to finally join us," he said.

"I apologize for my tardiness, sir," I said.

I couldn't wait until Fudge was out of office and I could finally stop pretending to like him.

"Well it doesn't matter anyway. You'll be working field service next week anyway," he said. "You should be grateful I'm granting you clemency instead of sacking you because of those circumstances, Tonks. Aren't you grateful?"

"Extremely grateful, sir," I said, pitifully.

_Jump. How high?_

"Now all of you to work, except you Tonks, I need to speak to you," Fudge said.

I sighed. Becca patted my back encouragingly.

I walked up to Fudge.

"Sir?" I asked.

"Am I to assume you heard the last part of my little lecture?" he asked.

"Yes sir and if you don't mind me saying, I can't completely agree with what you're doing," I said.

The whole office seemed to hear what I'd said and stopped working.

"Is that so?" he asked.

"Well, sir, Hannah Potter isn't anything but a little girl. It just doesn't seem likely that she's a murderer," I said.

"Then who do you suggest killed, Diggory?" Fudge said.

_Constant vigilance, Nymphadora!_

Trick question.

"Well, sir, I don't know but really, what reason would she have had to murder Diggory?" I asked.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Fudge said.

"So you're looking for a reason to put her away?" I asked.

_Shut up, Tonks! Stop talking!_

"What did you say?" he asked.

"Uh. . . Well, if you don't have a reason to investigate her aside from being in the wrong place at the wrong time I mean. . . There isn't really any reason for you to look into it any further," I said. "It's almost as if you're just trying to find something to prove that she is guilty. . ."

_Go empty you cubicle, Nymphadora. You're through. Mad-Eye and Sirius are going to eat you alive for this one. . ._

"Have you heard any of the rubbish this girl has talked about? She says You-Know-Who has returned. She's mental!" Fudge said.

"Well then she needs a counselor if that's the case. I mean, if you tell her she's being investigated for murder it can't very well help the situation," I said.

Fudge was silent for a moment.

"It appears, Miss Tonks may be right," Fudge said. "If Potter is as disturbed as she appears to be, then the absolute worst thing we can do is throw her into a stressful situation in which she would make up even more crazy stories. Especially considering her brother is going on trial tomorrow."

"Of course," I said.

"But we can't really blame her for coming up with these outlandish stories," Fudge said.

". . . We can't?" I asked.

"Of course not. Dumbledore! He keeps encouraging the girl and her brother. Probably to throw attention away from himself. Stop work on the Potter case. I want a full investigation of Dumbledore immediately. My gut tells me he's up to something," Fudge said.

_Well. . . That wasn't supposed to happen. . ._

"You should be happy now Nymphadora. A supposedly innocent girl won't be going to Azkaban," Fudge said. He smiled and walked away.


	6. Plans

I could've gone home and went to bed but instead I had to go to the Order and tell them what I'd done.

"Tonks, you're here early," Sirius said.

Arthur, Molly, Sirius and Remus sat at the kitchen table.

"You look terrible," Remus said.

"I haven't slept at all since I left last night," I said.

"What happened?" Arthur asked.

"I managed to stop a full blown investigation of Hannah for the Diggory case," I said.

"Thank goodness. The last thing I want to happen to Hannah is for her to end up in Azkaban," Sirius said.

"There's more," I said. "I instead, single handedly managed to start a full blown investigation of _Dumbledore_. Now they think he wants to take over the ministry for real. They also think Hannah needs a psychiatrist by the way so someone should look into that."

Molly sighed. "Oh, dear."

"How do I manage to screw everything up so badly?" I asked.

"Well Dumbledore said priority number was for Hannah and Harry to stay out of trouble. He won't be angry as long as they're not sending Hannah to prison," Arthur said.

"With dementors and death eaters. . . She wouldn't last the night," Sirius said.

"So in the grand scheme of things, you done good Tonks," Remus said.

I nodded as Molly sat a cup of coffee down for me.

"All of this on top of me starting that stupid week long guard duty at Azkaban," I groaned. "All this increased security because rumor has been circulating that Sirius Black is planning to break out a few of his high security buddies."

"I'm sorry, Tonks. I can't reschedule the break out once the ball gets rolling," Sirius said. I chuckled tiredly to myself.

"Why, Hannah! You're up mighty early," Molly said.

We looked to the door to see a tired Hannah, still in her pajamas slinking into the room.

"Come to see Harry off have you?" Arthur asked. She nodded.

Hannah yawned and rested her head on Sirius's shoulder. Clearly she wasn't made to be up this early. "I'm not worried, you know. . . He's innocent. . . Hermione and I had been reading the laws. . . You're allowed to use magic if your life, or soul in this case, is in danger." She yawned again. "So all he has to do is tell the truth. . . And he'll be fine."

Her eyes were sagging shut with each word she said.

"So it looks like you've got faith in the system then," Tonks said.

I shook my head. Faith in this corrupt system? "No, never. . . I have faith in my brother though. . ."

"Amen to that," Sirius said.

"Oh, Hannah, you're awake," Harry said. "I didn't expect to be seeing you."

"Well I couldn't let you go without an encouraging word from me now could I?" she asked with a yawn.

"You could've given it to me last night like everyone else did, you know, when you were awake," Harry said.

"Never," she replied.

"Go to bed, Sis. You look downright awful," Harry said.

"No. . . I will not sleep until I have seen you off," she said.

"You're so pathetic. You're not even awake right now," Harry said as Molly attacked his head with a comb. "That's not going to work. It just does its own thing really." Molly sighed.

"You want anything to eat, Harry?" she asked, giving up on his untamable hair.

"Just some toast thanks," he replied as he yawned.

"Tired?" I asked.

"No more than you are. You look like you haven't slept in ages," Harry said.

"I had a busy night," I said. "But in the end I guess I done good."

"That's all that matters," Harry said.

"Well, Harry, we'd better get going," Arthur said.

Harry rose from the table.

"See you later, Hannah," Harry said.

"Good luck, Harry," I said.

"Make sure she gets back to bed," Harry said.

"I'll see to that," Sirius said.

Waving goodbye one last time, Harry and Arthur left.

"Well, Hannah, let's hope you're right and one truth prevails," Remus said. But at the moment it was clear Hannah had fallen asleep.

"Poor thing," I said with a yawn.

"You should get some rest too, Tonks," Remus said.

"Probably. . . Ugh! This whole fiasco is going to ruin my already terrible sleeping habits," I said rising up from the table.

"Don't worry, we'll wake you in a few hours," Molly said. "Then you can go back to sleep this evening and wake at a reasonable hour. Clearly being suspended from work was a bit of a blessing in disguise."

"If you want to look at it that way," I said.

"Oh, Sirius, hurry and take Hannah to bed. She snores something terrible when she's tired," Molly said.

But at that precise moment she started to snore. It sounded like a growling animal.

"She snores like a man," I said in surprise.

"She snores like her dad," Remus and Sirius said in unison.

Sirius lifted Hannah into his arms. She was still snoring.

"Can you believe this? 15 years old and I have to carry her to bed. It's nonsense," Sirius said. "I should make her walk."

"Yes but if you wake her up she won't go back to sleep and then she'll be cranky the rest of the day," Molly said.

"She's cranky enough as it is," Sirius said walking out of the room.

888

I knew I'd only been a sleep a few hours but I also knew I needed to get up if I didn't want to be awake at midnight this evening. Still a few more minutes wouldn't hurt.

Just as I was drifting off to sleep there was a loud banging right over my head.

I sat up quickly as the clatter of a pot and spoon fell to the ground. I looked up just in time to see a red head dash out of my room and close the door.

I jumped out of bed, irritated, angry and tired. I marched over to the door and swung it open. I could hear someone running downstairs with lightening speed.

I marched downstairs into the kitchen.

"Which of you did it?" I asked.

"Did what?" Ron asked.

"The pot and spoon and the banging," I said.

"Hannah," Sirius said, pointing.

Hannah scoffed. "Sirius paid me to do it."

"Traitor," he whispered to her.

"You first," she replied.

"Honestly, Tonks, I didn't think she'd do it," Sirius replied.

"Have you met her parents, Sirius?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"You listen here, Sirius, and you listen good," I said, climbing on top of the table, as if ready to pounce on Sirius and eat his heart out, "you pull another stunt like that and I'll make you wish you were back in Azkaban and that is a promise."

"Alright, I got it," Sirius said.

"Yes, now calm down," Lupin said pulling me from the table in that calm way he always did. "And you, Hannah, you should be ashamed of yourself as well."

"Yes, I am. I let my idiot complex get the better of me," she said.

". . . It's fine," I said.

"What time is it?" Hannah asked.

"Eleven-thirty," Lupin replied.

Hannah groaned. "Why isn't he back yet?"

Then on cue, the kitchen door opened and in walked an angry looking Harry.

"What happened?" Hannah asked.

"Well, I'm all happy and excited because I got off and everything and then I slam my stupid hand in the stupid door and it hurts like crap," Harry said.

Hannah was out of her seat after the words "I got off" left his lips. By the end of the sentence she was hugging him.

"Can you imagine if you hadn't? I'd barely get to see you any and then I'd maybe get to see you during the summer," she said. Then she let out a sigh. "I'm too attached to you, Harry."

"Speaking of being too attached, I kind of can't breathe," he said trying to wriggle free of her death grip.

I smiled, some days I wished I'd had a sibling to fawn over that way.

Hannah let him go and he took a seat.

"So, what was the trial like?" Hermione asked.

"It was packed! The entire Wizengamot was there," Harry said.

"That's unusual for such a small case," I said.

"Yeah, and Dumbledore was there," Harry said.

"Was he? What did he say?" Hannah asked.

"Nothing to me. Barely looked at me," Harry replied, annoyed at this.

"I know what you mean. Dumbledore's on my 'fecal matter roster' these days too," Hannah said.

Sirius chuckled.

"Oh, and Lucius Malfoy was being a creeper outside the room," Harry said.

Lucius was turning into the ultimate creeper.

"He's up to something," Hermione said.

"Sure, but it doesn't matter because at the end of the day I got off, I'm going back to Hogwarts, so he can roughly insert a broomstick up his anus for all I care," Harry said.

"Watch your language," Mrs. Weasley said whacking him upside the head with a wooden spoon.

"Worth it," Harry said.

888

"I can't sleep, Remus, why did they wake me up?" I asked sitting Indian style on the couch next to him in the lounge.

"Well so you could fall asleep this evening," Remus said.

"No, such luck," I said. "Well my sleep schedule has been raped by the ministry. Why are you awake?"

"I'm very nocturnal these days," Remus said.

"You hardly ever sleep. I never see you sleep," I pointed out. "When do you sleep?"

"Hmm. . . You know that space of time right as the sun goes up and before 10. . . That's when I sleep."

"That's only a few hours," I said.

"Well after a while you learn to function properly without the rest of those hours," Remus said.

"I think that if I'm to be awake so many hours of the day doing absolutely nothing then I should find a hobby," I said.

"Or at the very least do something constructive," Remus said.

"At least when the house was filthy it kept me busy cleaning it. Now look at me, I'm here sitting on the couch watching you read books," I said. "I would read a book but I don't have the brain for it anymore."

"Anymore?" Remus asked.

"Well obviously, I was much smarter when I was in school. You can't be an idiot and become an auror. . . Of course I think the gray walls of my cubicle have sucked out the intellectual in me," I said. "I'm as dumb as a box of rocks."

"Well at least you have your common sense," Remus said. "Which in some cases is better than sense that you'd get from books and school, I suppose."

"Yeah. If you don't know what an acromantula is but you do know what spiders are, common sense tells you to get the hell away from it because it's just a really big spider," I said.

"That's one example," Remus chuckled.

"You have any examples of where common sense is better?" I asked.

"Can't say I do. I have more sense than common sense," Remus admitted.

"No wonder you and Sirius are always getting into these crazy predicaments," I said.

"If that's what you want to call them," Remus said.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" I asked.

Remus shrugged. "Whatever arises. You?"

"Same thing. I should enjoy my last day of freedom from that hell hole I call a job," I said.

"I thought you liked being an auror," Remus said.

"Yeah, because 'liked' is past tense," I said. Remus chuckled. "Ever since Fudge got all 'Dumbledore wants my job' and 'the Potter Twins are crazy' he's been looking for reasons to fire everyone. . . Unfortunately he's taken a liking to threatening me. . . Just last evening he alluded to the fact that if I wasn't already put down for an assignment on Monday I'd be out of a job."

"Why's he after you?" Remus asked.

"Who knows? Probably because I'm new, I'm the youngest auror in our department, and I openly despise everything he does," I said.

"You're right. Can't imagine why he would ever want to fire you," Remus said sarcastically.

"Fudge is a low life, bottom feeding, douche bag, publicity whore and the only reason I haven't told him this is because my job is at stake," I said.

"Can't say I blame you for feeling that way," Remus replied.

I sighed. "I suppose I should go home tomorrow and straighten my flat up a bit before my mother unexpectedly pops by and gets on my case about it. I don't like to think it's messy. I think it's lived in."

"Well I can help you if you like," Remus offered.

"Really? It's not awful or anything," I said.

"It's something to get me out of the house," he said.

I smiled. "Sounds like a plan then. I'll even get up early for it. . . Which I guess means I should get to bed right now and force myself to sleep."

"Goodnight then," Remus said.

I went to get off the couch, but sitting Indian style for so long had made my legs go numb so I fell over. This time I hit the ground. "Ow. . ."

Remus helped me to my feet. "Can I trust you not to die on your way to bed?"

"Can't make any promises. You know that," I said. "Goodnight, Remus."

"Tonks," he said with a nod. I walked up the stairs, at the top stood Sirius, who was smiling widely.

"You made plans tomorrow with my buddy Remus I see," he said.

"Yes," I said.

"Excited?" Sirius asked. I shrugged.

"I guess," I said walking toward my door.

"You look it," Sirius said. I shrugged again.

"You wouldn't happen to have a crush on Ol' Moony now would you?" Sirius asked. I laughed.

"That's absurd," I said going into my room.

"Why is it?" Sirius asked.

"He's Remus. . . He's always been just Remus," I said.

"Now Tonks. You used to have the most adorable little crush on him-."

"When I was four," I said.

"Alright. . . I'm just messing with you," Sirius said.

"Well please stop," I said.


	7. The History of Yuna the Unicorn

Despite the musty smell and the nagging feeling that a spider might be crawling on me, I knew this was the best sleep I ever had.

But alas, I knew I had to get up to meet Remus.

I rolled over onto my back and stretched. I opened my eyes saw light coming into my room from the hallway. I specifically remembered Sirius closing the door last night. I then looked up and saw a tired Hannah standing by my bed. Her eyes were tired and weak.

"Hannah?" I asked. I looked down to see she was holding something. . . A meat cleaver. "Whoa! Whoa! Hannah! What are you doing?" I scooted up away from her and the knife.

"You're awake already. . . Then I've failed," Hannah said weakly. She turned from me and slinked out of the room. I sat grasping my covers in fear as she left the room.

_*What. . . The. . . Hell?*_

"Hannah? What are you doing?" I heard Harry ask.

"Oh. . . It was a frying pan a minute," she replied.

"Oi! Stop swinging it everywhere Hannah! Stop it!" Harry said. "Take that thing downstairs." Harry appeared at my door. "Are you alright?"

"Why was your sister holding a knife over me, Harry?" I asked.

"She was a bit disorientated," he replied. "Sorry for the scare."

"Right," I said. Harry walked out closing the door behind him.

I showered and dressed, forgetting about the incident and headed downstairs. Today I decided to go with brown hair. It suited me rather well, I thought. Besides, that was the color my land lord, Jimmy, a muggle, thought it was.

I stepped into the kitchen, everyone sat eating breakfast.

"Hey, Tonks. Have some orange juice," Hannah said handing me a glass.

"Thanks, Hannah," I said.

"Yeah. . . About this morning. . . I was completely-."

"Out of touch with reality," I said. "It's cool."

Hannah nodded as I sat down.

Fred bounded into the kitchen with George closely behind. "Hey, mum, has dad left yet?"

"No. He's just upstairs. Why?" Molly asked.

"I wanted him to send this letter for me," Fred said.

"Who's it for?" she asked suspiciously.

"Er. . . Well, you know. . . A friend," Fred chuckled.

"It's for Emily, mum," George said.

"Oh, that delightful girl you're dating," Molly said.

"Yes, yes, yes. Can you just have him send it?" Fred asked, annoyed and turned a bright shade of red.

"Awe, Fred misses Emily," Ginny said.

"Shut up, Gin," Fred said.

"Emily's a decent enough girl. No shame in being absolutely whipped over a girl like her," George said.

"I am not whipped," Fred said.

"Oh but you are," Hannah said. "Since when did you ever write letters to your girlfriends? And since when would you ever go through so much trouble just to get her that letter?"

"Awe, my, Fred's in love," Molly cooed.

"Mum!" Fred said sitting down at the table.

Molly sat me down a plate of bacon and eggs. "Thank you, Molly."

I started to eat as everyone went into their own side conversations.

Just as I finished breakfast, Remus came downstairs.

"Remus. You're late," I said.

"Sorry. I overslept," he said.

"Shame on you," I said. "Are you ready to go?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Where are you two headed?" Molly asked.

"To clean my flat!" I cheered.

"Have fun with that project," Hannah said getting up from the table.

"What are you going to do today?" I asked.

Hannah shrugged. "Harass Sirius. General mischief, tomfoolery, and shenanigans. I may even read a book or two."

"Sounds like you've got a full day ahead of you," Remus said.

"For sure," she said. "Harry, you wanna watch me shave off half of Sirius' mustache?"

"Sure I've got nothing better to do," Harry said. "You wanna take pictures?"

"Yeah and then Ginny and I can put stickers and glitter all over his face," Hermione said.

The group headed upstairs to inflict what I could only assume was the worst kind of torture on a man like Sirius who took great pride in his looks.

"Poor, Sirius," Molly said.

Remus and I walked outside. It was a bit chilly, as I had expected this morning and I'd dressed accordingly.

"Nice weather we're having," I said.

"If you like it chilly," Remus said.

"Now hug me," I said.

"Why?" he asked.

"My flat is not in walking distance of this house and I'm not taking the Knight Bus. Stan Shunpike is always 'looking at me' if you catch my drift," I said. "He's got that 'Oh my god I wanna rip your skin, turn it into pajamas and wear it' look in his eyes."

"Can't say I've ever gotten that look," Remus said.

"Not while you were looking, but I'm sure many a girl has wanted to make pajamas of you," I said. I tossed my arms around him and concentrated hard.

Not a moment later we were standing inside my flat. I released him.

"Has anyone ever told you that you smell really good?" I asked.

"Er. . . I don't think so," Remus said confusedly.

"Well you do," I said.

"Uh. . . Thank you I think," he said.

"Anyway, welcome to my humble abode," I said switching on the light. "It's a bit small and ugly looking but I like it all the same."

"It's got a very homey feel to it. . . Except for the walls," Remus said.

"There is nothing wrong with purple and green," I said. Remus shook his head. "Hey, if you're going to make fun of my flat then you can go back to Grimmauld and be the subject of Hannah's cruel and unusual methods of entertainment."

"Alright. I'll keep my thoughts to myself," Remus said.

"Good idea," I said. "Now where to begin?"

"It's not as horrible as I predicted it to be," he said.

"Do I come off as a messy person?" I asked.

"You want me to answer that question honestly?" he asked perusing the apartment.

I chuckled. "I wish I could blame some of this mess on Bill but I can't."

"I told you, it doesn't look awful, just lived in like you said," he said.

"You have no idea how good that makes me feel inside," I said.

"Oh, wow," he said.

"What 'tis it?" I asked.

Remus lifted a tiny purple unicorn from my mantel.

"Oh, Yuna the Unicorn," I said. "What of her?"

"Do you remember how you happened upon this?" he asked.

"Uh, no. I was a very little kid," I said.

"You won't believe this," he said, "but I gave this to you."

"No way," I said walking over to him. "Did you really?"

"You were four. It was your birthday. Sirius insisted that I get you _something._ I remember," he said.

"Wow," I said. "Yuna saw me through all seven years of Hogwarts and my auror exams. This little plastic unicorn has been with me through it all."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes. I know you probably think it's rather immature that I've kept it but it meant a lot to me," I said.

"I don't think it's childish," he said. "It's like a small, inconspicuous security blanket."

"Do you have a security blanket?" I asked. Remus shook his head. I frowned at him. "Then how exactly can you justify this?"

"Because I gave it to you," Remus said.

"But if you hadn't then-."

"I would laugh at you," he said.

"Thank you, Remus. You're a true friend," I said. I walked over at sat the unicorn back on mantel. I looked down at the entertainment center beneath and spotted a movie I hadn't known we had. "Nightmare on Elm Street."

"The horror movie?" Remus asked.

"You've seen it?" I asked him pulling it off my shelf.

"No, but I've heard of it," he said.

"We should watch it," I suggested.

"Aren't we supposed to be cleaning?" he asked.

"We've got all day to clean. This movie is only an hour and a half long or so," I said. "It'll be fun. I can make popcorn and you can make fun of me for screaming like a little girl. I scare easily."

"You're an auror and you scare easily?" he asked.

"Yes, and I'm also clumsy, but I'm a damn good auror," I said. "And for that comment, you have to watch it with me."

"Again, I ask, aren't we supposed to be cleaning?" he asked.

"We'll clean eventually, I'm just really good at procrastinating," I said.


	8. Back to Work

Remus and I arrived back at Grimmauld Place and upon entering the kitchen found Harry sitting in a chair, in the corner, staring at the wall. In the corner in the opposite end of the kitchen sat Ron.

An angry looking Sirius sat at the table, one hand covering his mouth and nose. A few seats down from him sat Hannah, head down; face not visible, across from her, one of the twins was in the same position.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Hannah asked.

"No," Sirius said.

"So. . . I'm guessing these four are in some sort of trouble," Remus said.

"Oh, they all are at the moment," Molly said. For once, she was sitting at the table, somewhat relaxed, instead of cleaning. "Fred is in the lounge with Hermione and Ginny, all silent."

"Why? What happened?" I asked.

"Mass amounts of chaos. That's all you need to know," Molly said.

"I really have to pee," Hannah said desperately.

"You can go in half an hour," Sirius said.

"But I can't hold it that long," Hannah complained.

"You should've thought about that," Sirius said. Hannah groaned and mumbled something to herself. "You shouldn't mumble Hannah. It's rude. . . That and I can't understand a word you're saying."

I knew Hannah well enough to know she probably rolled her eyes at this comment.

"Why're you covering your mouth like that?" I asked.

Sirius stared at us for a moment and then pulled his hand down slowly revealing his mustacheless face.

"Wow!" I said. "Where did it go?"

"I do recall the children saying something about shaving half his mustache off before we left this morning," Remus said.

"And you didn't think to warn me, Moony?" Sirius asked.

"Why on earth would I do that when this is just so much more entertaining?" Remus said. I chuckled.

". . . You sir are an-."

"I really have to go," Hannah said interrupting her godfather.

"How's her flat looking, Remus?" Sirius asked.

"Uh. . . I guess it's what you'd expect out of Tonks," Remus said.

"Sirius. . ." Hannah whined.

"What color is it?" Sirius asked. It was clear he was trying to ignore Hannah.

". . . Purple and green," Remus said.

"I can't hold it," she said. I knew she was crying now.

"Maybe you should let her go," I suggested.

"Please. I can't take it anymore," Hannah cried.

"If you go to the bathroom don't bother coming back down until dinner," Sirius said.

Hannah jumped up from her seat, sped out of the kitchen, sprinted upstairs.

"She really had to go," Molly said.

"I suppose. . . Alright the rest of you into the lounge and no more foolishness," Sirius said.

Everyone stood from their respective chairs and headed into the lounge.

"Ronald," Molly called, but not a moment later did a snore come from him mouth. I sighed.

"How long was he sitting there?" I asked.

"Twenty minutes at most," Molly said. "We couldn't get him to sit still until then. Now look at him. Dead to the world."

"He was like that in class a lot," Remus said. "I'm still amazed he managed to pass."

Just then he fell over out of his chair and immediately jumped to his feet, wide awake. I couldn't help but giggle.

'Lounge," Molly said.

Somewhat dazed, Ron walked out of the kitchen.

888

"I should really go to bed," I said that evening. I was sitting in the lounge with Remus and Sirius. "I have to work a 16 hour shift tomorrow at Azkaban with the high security prisoners."

"You've got a rough week ahead of you," Sirius assured me. "You should get to bed."

"I know! But I watched that darn movie today and I am definitely going to have nightmares," I said.

"Movie? I thought you were cleaning your flat?" Sirius asked.

"Well, we were just slightly distracted when we first got there. We did clean it eventually," I said.

"But you. . . Watched a movie first?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. She says it's because she's a professional procrastinator," Remus said. I nodded in agreement, smiling proudly.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Nothing. Should I mean something by it," Sirius said.

"Now what do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Ignore him. He's being an idiot as such is his nature," Remus said.

"Well, if that's the case I'm going to bed," I said. "I will see you gentlemen in the morning. . . Or not. I have to get up stupid early."

"Remus doesn't sleep. You'll see him at least," Sirius said. "I'm sure you don't mind that."

I glanced over to Remus to ask him what his friend was talking about but he shook his head.

"He's still being an idiot," Remus said.

I shrugged and hopped to my feet. "Goodnight."

888

I walked into the kitchen, bright and early at six-thirty, expecting to see myself off, but was pleasantly surprised to find Remus sitting at the dining room. He looked tired, like he always did, but at the same time, he was cheerful, like always.

I smiled at him "Well good morning sunshine."

He chuckled. "I made coffee. Put it in a thermos for you and everything"

"Oh, Remus," I sighed taking it off the counter. "Thank you. That was really sweet of you."

That's when I thought to myself—when was the last time I did anything nice for Remus? He helped me clean my apartment. Made me coffee in the morning. He saved me from falling and injuring myself over and over again. He deserved something more than a thank you.

"When you're around the dementors today," he started, shaking me from my thoughts, "it might help to keep something that'll remind of you something happy. That way it'll be harder to have _all _the joy sucked out of you."

"Thanks again. You are really brilliant, you know that? You have an answer for everything," I said.

"Not everything," he replied.

"Well thank you for all the helpful advice you've given me and for all the sporadic acts of kindness you commit on my behalf," I said.

"You're welcome, but where is all of this coming from?" he asked with a chuckle.

I chuckled. "I have no idea. Sleep deprivation maybe? I had a horrible dream last night. I was getting chased around Hogwarts by Freddy all evening. And then Peeves stole my clothes and the Squid came out the lake and ate Freddy and I fell off the astronomy tower. It sucked."

"I can imagine," he replied. "It'll suck even more having to go to Azkaban with that in your head."

"Ah, but I'll keep the memory of you giving me this coffee tucked away inside my brain if I get sad," I said. He laughed. "I'll see you around, Remus."

He nodded me off and I walked out the kitchen, up the stairs, and out the front door. I apparated to my flat. I hadn't come to do anything extraordinary, just to take Remus up on his advice for surviving the dementors.

I looked around it for a moment and then my eyes landed on my mantel and there sat Yuna—as purple and unicornlike as always. I picked her up and sighed. Yuna had helped me through Hogwarts and my auror exams. I was sure she could get me through Azkaban. And it felt fitting that Remus had given her to me being that he had given me the idea to take something in the first place.

I dropped Yuna into my pocket and then apparated into the auror office. Already waiting there were Dawlish, Fudge, Rufus, Percy, and a tired looking Becca.

"Ah, Nymphadora. I'm happy to see you've made it. And on time no less. Clearly you've learned your lesson," Fudge said.

"Sure," I said

_Whatever you say._

"Rufus and I must be off to a meeting now but my assistant, Percy, here will brief you on your assignment," Fudge said. "Come along, Rebecca."

Becca nodded to me as she, Rufus and Fudge apparated away.

"Now, Dawlish, Tonks," Percy began, "the two of you will be stationed at Azkaban prison. Your day is 16 hours long. While that alone may not seem very long with the dementors there it will seem even longer."

And then I wondered what world he lived in that lead him to believe that a 16 hour day wasn't very long.

"As aurors, Cornelius expects you to remain vigilant even in the face of these creatures," Percy said. "Come 11 o'clock you will report here and then return home. Just like today you are to be here five minutes before seven as to make your portkey to the prison. . . At the end of the day you will be tired and your schedule does not leave much time for sleep but you are trained to operate under such conditions and Cornelius expects you to."

I rolled my eyes. Percy felt all important because he could call Fudge Cornelius, instead of Sir and Minister like the rest of us.

"Oh yes, Miss, do to your poor work ethic in recent weeks he's left me special directions to give to you. Arrive to work late, even one day Nymphadora-"

"That's Tonks to you Percy," I corrected him. "I know your mother has taught you to address people appropriately."

"Fine. . . Arrive to work late once _Tonks_ and you'll have to find employment elsewhere. . . Probably as a barmaid. No one else in the ministry would take you on if you're fired by the minister," Percy said.

"I'll make a note if it," I said. "Would you like me to stand here and chat longer or can I get going?"

Percy reached round behind and handed me a belt.

"Your portkey leaves in two minutes," he said. Then he turned away from us. I handed the other end of the belt to Dawlish.

Percy was always my least favorite Weasley.


	9. In Which Remus Is Awesome

I had no energy to open the door to my flat. I'd spent 16 hours in Azkaban with dementors and psychotic prisoners. Then I went back to the ministry where Fudge didn't bother to show up for an hour. To top it off I had to get up to get up to go back to work in 6 hours, not to mention I hadn't even eaten dinner yet.

I had to endure this 4 more times. I could cry.

"Well look who bothered to show up," a voice said. I turned to see my landlord, Jimmy.

"What do you want?" I asked as suddenly found the strength to look for my keys.

"You're late on your rent," he said. "It was due last weeks ago."

"I'll slide the check under your door, Jimmy," I said, finding my keys.

"You haven't been here in ages. Are you living somewhere else now?" Jimmy asked.

"No. I still live here," I said unlocking the door.

"Then where have you been?" Jimmy asked.

"Listen. You are my landlord. You take my money and don't worry about what I do with my private life," I said opening the door and walking into my apartment. "You will get your money."

Jimmy scoffed as he started to walk away. "Someone's got sand in her vagina."

"Keep it up and you'll have my foot up your ass and a flat to fill," I said.

I slammed the door shut.

I was angry, depressed, sleep deprived and hungry. Of course I was in a bad mood.

I went to my fridge and opened it. A carton of milk, half a loaf of bread, a few cans of soda and a couple of bad apples.

I'd been at Grimmauld so much recently that I hadn't even bothered to get groceries for my own house.

_Guess I won't be staying home this evening._

I grabbed my cloak and tossed it back on. I apparated back to Grimmauld. I managed again to not trip over anything as I entered the house. I walked into the kitchen to find Remus and Sirius chatting.

Hello, boys," I said weakly.

"Tonks, we didn't expect to be seeing you until service at Azkaban was finished," Sirius said. "It's almost one in the morning. What are you doing here?"

"Fudge kept me at me ministry until past midnight and I returned home to discover there was no food in my house because I've been having all my meals here and at work for the past several weeks," I explained as I sat down at the table."

"Poor thing," Sirius said. "You look terrible."

"I feel terrible. I have to be at work at a quarter to seven and Fudge says if I come in late even once I'm sacked. I spent 16 hours guarding Bellatrix Lestrange of all people! Not mention a dementor was by every five minutes or so and they also had me running back and forth to a whole group of dementors explaining how everything is. I'm tired, I'm hungry and I swear to god if I hear the word 'mudblood' one more time I'll kill something," I said. "And it's only day one."

Remus stood from the table and went to the cabinet. He pulled out a chocolate bar and handed it to me.

"Eat it. Trust me, you'll feel better," he said. I unwrapped it and slowly began to eat away at it.

"You're being staying here tonight I suppose," Sirius said.

"Can't. . . I haven't got any clean clothes left here," I sighed.

"You do. Molly did your laundry for you," Sirius said.

"Oh. . . But I might oversleep if I stay here," I said.

"Now come on, Tonks. Look at the state of you. You'll sleep right through that alarm clock if you go home," Sirius said. "You'll stay the night here and that's final. I'll wake you up in the morning."

There was no point in arguing. I didn't have the energy anyway.

"Sirius you can't forget. My job depends on this and if I lose my job I'll not only lose my flat but I'll be useless to the order as well," I said.

"I won't forget," Sirius said.

"In the meantime, Molly made beef stew for dinner. There's quite a bit left over if you wanted any," Remus said.

"You'll never catch me saying no to anything Molly Weasley cooks," I said.

"I second that," Sirius said as Remus got up to get me a bowl.

"I'll need to stay home tomorrow though," I said. "My landlord is a muggle and he's been suspicious of my extended absences not to mention the fact he's never seen Bill, my alleged flatmate. Oh, and I haven't paid my rent yet this month so I think he was thinking of renting out my apartment to someone else."

Sirius scoffed. "Wizard or muggle, they're all the same when it comes to money."

"Some of them anyway," I said. Remus sat the bowl of stew down in front of me. "Thank you."

He nodded.

I ate the stew quickly and didn't bother with seconds.

"I'd better be off to bed. I'm only getting five hours of sleep as it is," I said.

"Sleep fast," Remus said.

"I'll try," I said rising from the table with a yawn. "Goodnight."

888

When I arrived to work the next morning, Becca was already there, looking tired.

"Tonks, you're here early," she said.

"On time actually," I said.

"Same difference," Becca chuckled. "Heard you didn't leave till late yesterday."

"Fudge didn't bother to show till after midnight," I said. "What was he doing last night anyway?"

"He was at home asleep as far as I know," Becca scoffed. She was in charge of his schedule and things of that nature.

"So I'm sleep deprived because he decided he wanted to take a nap? If he weren't the minister of magic and running our country I would give him a piece of my mind," I said.

"You are not alone," Becca said.

"Ah! Tonks, Rebecca, you're both here, fantastic," Percy said as he entered the room.

"Is Cornelius at his breakfast with the minister from Bulgaria?" Becca asked.

"Yes he is, just as you scheduled it," Percy said. "Now, to you Nymph-."

"Finish and I'll rip out your tongue," I threatened.

"You'll do well not to speak to your superiors that way, Tonks," Percy said.

"Please, you're not my superior. I'll talk nicer to the gum on the bottom of my shoes than to you," I said.

". . . Tonks, you'll be on duty at Azkaban by yourself the remainder of the week," Percy said. "The minister feels that Dawlish is over worked and needed time off."

"Dawlish is overworked? I'm the one who's been doing his work since he got the Diggory case," I said.

"This was the collective decision of both Fudge and Scrimgeour. If you have issues with your schedule take it up with them," Percy said. "I'm just a messenger."

I glared at him.

_Urge. . . To kill. . . Rising. . ._

Percy handed me the portkey.

"Have a nice day," Percy said.

_Urge. . . Growing. . . Restraint. . . Weakening. . ._

At that moment I was yanked away.

Saved by the portkey.

888

I got to my apartment, just as the evening before, Jimmy harassed me about rent, I shooed him off and walked sluggishly into my home. I walked over to the couch and laid down.

". . .So tired. . ." I said aloud.

I rose to my feet and took my cloak off. I tossed it onto my coffee table. It clattered which was odd because my cloak was all cloth. I picked it up from the table and felt around in the pockets.

I pulled out my Yuna, I'd forgotten all about her. I managed a smile.

I walked over to my kitchen area, fooling myself, knowing I didn't have any food.

But then I looked on the fridge. There was a little note stuck to it. With a quick glance I immediately recognized it as Remus's handwriting.

_Dear Tonks,_

_I've taken it upon myself to restock your refrigerator with food._

Without bothering to finish reading the letter I opened my refrigerator. There was another carton of milk, orange juice, another loaf of bread, eggs, fruit, vegetables and even more of Molly's left over pot roast.

I went back to the letter.

_I guess you really meant you had no food. Sirius was insisting that we make you return to Grimmauld. For him to constantly refer to you as his 'annoying and troublesome cousin' I think he rather enjoys keeping you around. Of course I reminded him of your need to return home and he gave up on it. Saturday won't come soon enough, though. With nothing to do for the Order and with no meetings in the near future I'm extremely bored without you here._

_See you soon,_

_Remus_

_P.S. I noticed you were out of coffee. Knowing you if you had none this would be a terrible, TERRIBLE, thing. So you have some now._

I looked on my counter. A container of coffee.

"Thank you, Remus," I said as if he were actually standing in the room. Attached to it was a small sheet of paper, his handwriting again.

_You're welcome._

It was scary how well he knew me.

I turned back to the letter one last time.

_P.P.S. There's chocolate in you cabinet. I recommend you eat some every night after returning from Azkaban. Trust me._

I opened the cabinet to reveal a box of Hershey bars. Muggle chocolate. No magical jumping frogs. That was a relief.

I reached for a bar but I stopped. I didn't need it. I felt okay. Better than okay. It was as if I hadn't spent 16 hours with dementors in Azkaban.

I looked back at the letter, the canister of coffee, my full refrigerator, and Yuna, who I still held in my hand.

Remus went through all this trouble just for me. I couldn't help but think how sweet it was that, unintentional it may've been, all by himself he'd managed to ward off the effects of dementors, my bosses, and my landlord. . .

A smile found a place on my lips and I could feel my face getting hot.

_Don't you start, Tonks. This is Remus, remember? Just Remus._

'Just Remus' or not. It didn't change how absolutely sweet it was.


	10. Minister of Magic Fail

I don't think I'd ever been happier to an assignment over and done with.

I returned to the ministry to file my papers then I'd be heading back to Grimmauld where Remus and Sirius would surely be waiting to see me.

"Oh, look. It's auror Tonks. Back from the Azkaban prison," Becca said. She was setting papers inside Kingsley cubicle. "Happy to be going home?"

"Er, I guess," I said, not having the energy to do a back-flip or moonwalk across the office to express my excitement.

"Heading home are you?" a voice at the door asked. I looked up to see Scrimgeour standing there.

"Yes, sir. I'm glad to finally have this assignment over with," I said.

"Yes, about that," another voice said.

Fudge entered the room behind, him.

"We were wanting you to return to Azkaban next week," Scrimgeour said softly.

"You want me to go back?" I asked.

"Yes well things are tight at the moment," Scrimgeour said.

"I can't work a 16 hour shift at Azkaban every day. It's cruel," I said.

"If you want to keep your job-."

"Keep my job? How is sending me to work at Azkaban is motivation for me to keep my job?" I asked. The mere thought of going back there for another week was making my sanity slip away.

"I expect there are other reasons for you to want to keep your job," Scrimgeour said.

"Other things? I became an auror because I was good at what I did. All you've done so far is stick me in corner, bury me under paper work and send me to work in the prison with _all_ of the lunatics," I said. "I watched Bellatrix Lestrange kill a rat with her bare hands! Do you know how disturbing that was to watch?"

"Well what are you good at besides being a metamorphagus? Rufus has no choice but to assign these jobs. You're not really good at anything else besides causing catastrophe," Fudge laughed.

"I cause a catastrophe? Have you looked at the state of the country recently? That's what I call a catastrophe," I said.

"And you think you know what the country needs better than I do?" Fudge asked.

"As a citizen? Yes," I said. "The entire system is corrupt now."

I could practically hear Mad-Eye and Kinglsey screaming at me, telling me to stop talking. If they were here boy would I be getting the look of death right now.

"You do realize you work for this 'corrupt system'?" Fudge asked.

"There has to be someone with sanity within it for the sake of the people," I said. "As far as I see it without the Daily Prophet endorsing all of your rubbish then we'd be getting things done instead of trying to put innocent people in prison."

Inside my head I screamed and then flung myself out of a window. I. Was. Losing. It.

"Innocent people? I assume you refer to Albus Dumbledore and the Potters," Fudge said. I rolled my eyes.

"They're the only ones right now you want to do anything about. There are more important things going on right now. Did you even stop once to think the Potters might actually be telling the truth about anything at all?" I asked.

"No. They're children who want attention and are afraid being losing their spotlight," Fudge said.

"And you've room to talk about them now wanting to lose their influence in the Wizarding World?" I asked. "Take a long hard look in the mirror, Cornelius. You're nothing but a low life, bottom feeding, douche bag, publicity whore yourself."

Becca dropped her clip board. Scrimgeour's eyes widened. Fudge turned a dark shade of red and looked at me with such hate I thought he might explode.

"How dare you talk to me that way?" he asked.

"How dare you treat your people this way? Two years ago you were so far up the Potter's asses trying to keep them 'safe' from Sirius Black you-."

"Nymphadora that is enough!" Rufus said finally.

"Tonks," I corrected him, quickly.

"I don't care what your name is! You will not speak to your superiors that way. Especially the minister of magic. You've been suspended once already and your work ethic leaves much to be desired already," Rufus said. "You're on thin ice."

"Thin ice? She's already fallen through. It's over Nymphadora, pack your things," Fudge said.

"Of course sir as soon as you find a metamorphagus to replace me," I said.

Fudge let out an annoyed sighed. Being a metamorphagus was my trump card.

"If I may give my opinion, Minister," Becca said.

"Of course, Rebecca. You are, after all, my most trusted advisor," Fudge said.

"Yes sir. If you look at it in the grand scheme of things, Miss Tonks has had a rough time of it recently. Putting up with all Dawlish's work, her own work, then working 80 hours around dementors this week. I imagine she's barely slept or eaten all week. Even when she was on leave she was working if you remember sir," Becca said.

"And your point is?" Fudge asked.

"Well. . . Maybe she's a bit stressed out. . . Over worked and spending her time in the company of those dementors probably doesn't do much for her attitude," Becca said.

Srimgeour and Fudge exchanged glances. Whatever they were thinking, it was the same thing.

"Alright Miss Tonks, your job is safe," Fudge said.

"But Monday morning I expect to have you in the office nine sharp, well rested and fed. I do not want to see you here either. Do you understand?" Rufus asked.

"Yes, sir," I said.

Rufus apparated away, as did Fudge. I turned to Becca.

"Becca, I-."

"Are you crazy? What were you thinking?" she asked. "You totally lost it."

"I know! I could hear myself but I couldn't stop. I was seconds away from karate kicking him," I said.

"And go home and go to bed, now, you lunatic," Becca said. "If I had a galleon for every time I've saved your job-."

"I know, Beckers. Thank you," I said.

888

My mood hadn't changed at all since I'd left the ministry. I was still tired, depressed, angry and hungry when I arrived there. I dragged myself down the hall way towards the kitchen.

To add to my fabulous mood, I tripped over the stupid troll foot umbrella stand. It made a loud clatter, and I did too, as I hit the ground.

Mrs. Black's portrait came to life screaming as she always did.

"Stains of dishonor! Filthy-."

"I AM IN _NO_ MOOD!" I shouted angrily. The portrait went silent Just as Sirius appeared to shut his mother up himself.

"Well. . . That's never happened before," he said. "Tonks, in a bad mood I see."

I ignored him as I we walked into the kitchen.

It was empty. No Remus as I had expected.

"Remus has been up in his room all day. That time of the month and all," Sirius said, as if reading my thoughts.

I sighed. It didn't do much for my mood that my new friend was ill today, even Sirius had tried to make a joke of it. I'd forgotten all about the fact that he was a werewolf, as I often did. He was just Remus to me. I didn't think anything of it.

"So, how was work?" Sirius asked.

"I just spent 80 hours with a bunch of dementors and my psychotic aunt Bellatrix Lestrange. Fudge went through with firing me when I told him he was a publicity whore but then his assistant told him I wasn't in my proper mind so he let me keep my job. All together I think I may've slept 12 hours in five days. I haven't eaten properly since Monday. I keep having a recurring nightmare about a flesh eating teddy bear. My landlord harasses me about rent every morning and I can't pay him yet because the ministry held back my money since I got suspended. I hate my life. I hate myself and I hate my job," I said.

Sirius had kindly listened to every word I had said.

"I think some sleep will do you some good, Tonks," Sirius said. "Wake at your own leisure."

"No argument from my side," I said.

"Good," Sirius said.

I dragged myself upstairs, no dinner even though I was starving I wasn't in the mood to eat. I crawled into bed after putting on some pajamas. I'd cut pajamas out of my routine this week as it was much faster to just sleep in my clothes and change only once a day.

I laid in bed awake for a moment before I crashed. My thoughts drifted to Remus, whose room was two doors down from mine. Somehow the fact that he was having a rough night as well made me feel better. Even though he was suffering differently and worse than I was, I knew in the morning when I got up he'd great me with a smile, even a hug if I asked him. Then he'd be curious to know how work was and he'd listen attentively as I'd explain how horrible it was.

Even though he'd be the one who'd really need a hug, even though he'd be the one who would need to talk, he'd completely kick it aside just to see how I was doing. I knew this because he'd done it last month. Not to mention his random acts of kindness had grown past giving me a plastic unicorn and to making sure I didn't starve to death.

Morning hadn't even come yet and I couldn't help but think how sweet he was.

_Oy, you're doing it again, Tonks. Get it together. It's Remus. Sirius's best friend, he even helped baby sit you on one occasion. Think how absolutely wrong the thoughts you're thinking about him are._

Just as I'd told myself before, it didn't change the fact that it was still very sweet of him.

888

"Spherical?" I asked.

Hannah nodded as Hermione shook her head.

"Sphereical. Not quite a sphere but almost," Hannah explained.

"Please shut up," Hermione said. Hannah rolled her eyes and went on talking.

"You see, the earth has a slight bulge in the middle, so it's almost technically an oval, but it appears to be a sphere. Which is why all globes are wrong," Hannah said.

"That. . . That is fascinating," Sirius said with false interest. "We never learned that in school."

"I didn't either. I read it in a muggle geography school book. I think we should have a geography class," I said.

"The last thing we need is another class, sis," Harry said. Hannah stuck her tongue out at him.

The kids were returning to school tomorrow and the summer was drawing to a close. Only Hannah and Hermione seemed excited about returning to school. Even Sirius seemed to be a rather bad mood now that the kids were leaving.

"You know they're just going to be getting us ready for our OWLs this year," Ron said.

"Yep and thank goodness. Can you imagine if they just sent us out to take this test with no idea what we were getting into?" Hermione asked.

"Professor McGonagall gives OWL prep courses after her classes every Friday," Hannah said.

"Guess who'll be there?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Not me," Harry said just as excitedly.

"Why not Mister 'I Want To Be An Auror?' I heard those test are hellish," Hannah said.

"They are," I said.

The auror exams were hellish. I remembered taking mine. Sometimes they actually gave me nightmares.

"See," Hermione said.

"Look, I'm trying hard enough to pass school as it. The last thing I need to do is worry about a test," Harry said.

"True. . . Even though it is linked to most 5th year student break downs and it decides your entire future. Passing or failing any section of it could decide whether you end up working as an auror if you're the pushing the supply from department to department," Hannah said.

"But let me guess, no pressure right?" Harry asked.

"Suddenly everything seems really bleak," Ron said.

"Now come on. You're a smart bunch. You can pass this test no problem. The way I see it the OWLs are just a way to show how absolutely brilliant you actually are," I said.

"Gee, Tonks. Thanks. That inspires a lot of confidence unlike some people who want to make the test seem dark and scary and terrifying," Harry said.

"Yeah, we can't all get straight A's in everything," Ron said.

"You can. . . But you don't try. I mean you play table quidditch during history of magic," Hermione said.

"I'm never going to need to know about the Giant Wars or whatever in my life," Ron said.

"But it's good to have the information. People will view you as an intelligent person," Hannah said.

"I'd rather people think I'm stupid than sit through another semester of Binns class," Ron said.

"Well people already think you're stupid and you still have to sit through another semester of his class," Hannah said.

"Oh, so I'm stupid now, eh? I don't have to take this," Ron said leaving the kitchen. Hannah jumped up to follow him.

"I didn't say I thought you were stupid. I said people. I'm your best friend after all," she said as they left.

"You know it's a decent change to have him angry with Hannah for once and not me," Hermione said.

"Indeed," Harry said.

"You argue a lot do you?" I asked curiously.

"Just a bit. Mostly we bicker about stupid stuff. . . Mostly school," Hermione said.

"During dinner usually," Harry said. "I've learned to ignore it. . . Except when they're about to stop talking. Usually I step in then."

"I hate when Hannah does it. She just says 'you're both ignorant, now shut it.' She's very blunt," Hermione said.

"Painfully blunt," Harry said.

"I don't think that's an inherent trait. I remember both your parents being able to let people down easily," Remus said.

Sirius scoffed. "You didn't do anything stupid so Lily never had to tell you were but she had a low tolerance for ignorance. Unfortunately I was great at being ignorant."

"I'm sorry you've had so much childhood trauma," I said.

"Yes and I bet they loved you at Hogwarts, _Nymphadora_," Sirius said.

"They ignored my name and decided that it was better to laugh at me for falling down the stairs," I admitted.

"It is really fun to watch you fall down," Sirius said.

"My self esteem has greatly decreased since I joined the order. Do you know that?" I asked. Sirius smiled.

"Well Remus doesn't laugh at you," Sirius said.

"And that's the only reason I haven't killed myself yet," I joked.

"That's what I'm here for," Remus said.

"Anyway," Hermione said, trying to find a change of subject, "how's the Quidditch season looking, Harry?"

". . . Since when did you care about Quidditch?" Harry asked.

"I don't, but furthering that previous conversation is not something on my agenda," Hermione said.

"Well how about we talk about something you actually care about," Harry said.

"Like what?" Hermione asked.

"Like. . . Like how you fancy Ron for instance," Harry said.

"Hermione fancies Ron?" Sirius asked.

"No! He's lying," Hermione said turning a deep shade of red.

"Ah, Hermione, I think you are the one who is lying," Sirius said.

"I'm not. Ron is merely my friend. . . He's my best friend. Besides, I have a boy friend," Hermione said.

"Do you? Who is it? Who is it?" I asked.

"She's still pretending she likes Viktor Krum," Harry scoffed.

"The Quidditch player?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," Hermione said.

"Lucky," I said. "He's really, really cute. I was so excited when turned 17 and I was allowed to like him without it seeming pedophilic and creepy."

"I know," Hermione said.

"Please. They broke up once," Harry said.

"Shut up, Harry," Hermione said impatiently.

"Krum broke up with her in fact," Harry said.

"I'm warning you, Potter," she said more impatiently.

"And why might you ask did Krum break up with Hermione?" Harry went on.

"How about this Harry. Continue on with your story and I'll tackle you to the ground. . . Just giving you fair warning. I'm gonna be on you like I was on Malfoy," Hermione said.

Harry saw through her bluff.

"Krum suspected that Hermione-."

WHAM!

Harry had been, as she had promised, tackled to the ground by Hermione, who knocked over chairs as she went.

"Excellent execution, Granger," Sirius cheered.

Remus immediately went over to remove Hermione from atop Harry.

"Want to finish your story now?" Hermione asked, being held back by Remus.

Harry was lying on the ground, disgruntled and a bit afraid.

"No. . . I'm done talking," Harry said.

"Woman are you mad? Attacking Harry like that," Remus said.

"No, no. . . I should know better than to not take her seriously," Harry said climbing to his feet. "Sorry, Hermione."

". . . It's fine. . . Sorry I attacked you," she said.

"All is forgiven," Harry said.

"Can I let you go without fear of you attacking anyone else?" Remus asked.

"Yes, Sirius," Hermione said.

Sirius released her.

Molly walked into the kitchen and looked crossly at Hermione and Harry.

"Merlin's beard. You have school tomorrow. There's no time to be horsing around like this. Harry get off the floor and to bed with you two and tell the others as well," Molly said.

"Goodnight," Harry said without argument. Only Fred and George seemed to be the only ones unafraid to invoke her wrath.

Harry and Hermione slinked upstairs out of the kitchen.

"You three ought to be ashamed not sending them off to bed with it being so late," Molly said.

"Just letting them enjoy their last evening away from school," Sirius said.

"Well it'd be better spent resting. Of course if you'd rather wake a bunch of tired, grouchy children in the morning then call them downstairs and let them stay up until two in the morning," Molly said. "And you two had better be getting to bed as well. You know you've got to drop them off at the station tomorrow."

"You know I don't sleep, Molly," I said.

"You had better start, Tonks. You've gotten into so much trouble already for not sleeping," Molly said.

"It wasn't my lack of sleep. It was the combined ignorance of our minister and my boss," I said.

"And you'd have handled yourself better if you'd actually slept properly," Remus said.

I gasped. "Well take her side why don't cha?" I said, pretending to be appalled.

"All the same you both had better get to bed, and you too, Sirius, if you mean to see them off in the morning," Molly said.

"Alright, alright then, Molly. We're going," Sirius said. "I'm positively tired anyway."

"Well I'm going to straighten up down here and I'll be off to bed as well," Molly said. "Make sure they're all in bed before you go yourself."

"Alright then," I said.

The three of us walked upstairs, as if we were children ourselves.

"Does lack of sleep really make me cranky?" I asked.

"Terribly cranky. You're quite the Grinch when you're tired," Remus said.

"A right terrible one," Sirius said. "When you're well rested and well fed you're much more pleasant to be around."

"I shall have to remember that then," I said.

"We can't really blame you for being awake though. You've mostly been babysitting while you've been here and kids are a handful," Sirius said. "Thank goodness they're teenagers. I remember when I was little I'd be up at the crack of dawn. Teenagers will sleep until the crack of dusk."

"If Molly would let them," Remus said.

"Especially that Hannah. There's not an amature sleeping bone in her body," I said.

Just then a burst of laughter came Hannah, Hermione and Ginny's room.

"Girls. What could you possibly find amusing this late in the evening?" Siriu asked.

"Probably talking about boys or their hair," Remus commented.

"I love how you've stereo typed us," I said. "Girls do not always talk about boys and their hair."

"Then what do you talk about?" Sirius asked.

"Why would I tell you that?" I asked.

"So we can stop stereo typing you," Remus said.

"But if you stop stereo typing us we can't yell at you for it," I said.

"Sadist," Sirius said.

"It's genetic," I yawned.


	11. Platform Nine and Three Quarters

"Dumbledore will have your head if you leave this house, Sirius," I said the next morning.

"I'll go as Snuffles. It's fool proof," Sirius said.

"It is not and you know it," Molly said. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"If you get caught they won't hesitate to send you off to the dementors," I said.

"This is why I should avoid getting caught," Sirius said.

"It's not a joke," Remus said. "If you get caught everything those kids went through to get you out of trouble two years ago is wasted."

"Not to mention they'd be absolutely distraught with you gone," Molly said.

Sirius still looked like he was mulling over these facts. I sighed.

"Fine, you know what, I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain to you why this is such a bad idea. Come if you like," I said.

"Well if you stir it a third time it's going to end up black and possibly poisonous. I suggest you keep it at two and let it simmer for a while. When it's near a boil stir it again and it should turn purple at which point adding ipecac should induce vomiting but the rest of the potion will make it ware off eventually and also leaves room for it to have an antidote," Hannah said as she and the rest of the children entered the kitchen with their luggage.

"You're not encouraging that joke shop of theirs are you Hannah?" Molly asked.

"Of course not. I would never intentionally disobey your orders directly by telling your sons how to create a vomit inducing candy," Hannah said, which was so obviously a lie.

"You're on thin ice, Hannah," Molly said. Hannah rolled her eyes.

"So, what do you think of me coming along with you to the platform as Snuffles?" Sirius asked.

"Hmm. . . Don't you think that's kind of. . . I don't know. . . Reckless?" she asked.

"I mean, what if you get caught? You'll get sent straight to the dementors," Hermione said.

"But he'll be Snuffles. He won't get caught," Harry said.

Sirius nodded at his godson's approval.

"News flash, Harry, there are some people within the ministry who are looking for Sirius that know he's an unregistered animagus who have children that go to our school," Hermione said.

"Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, Pansy Parkinson and pretty much any other kid in Slytherin who's mummy or daddy is a death eater which, on top of working for the ministry is a very, very, very bad thing," Hannah said.

"You worry too much," Harry said.

"She's being perfectly logical," Ginny said.

"But none of the kids know Sirius is an animagus," Ron said.

"But their parents who drop them off do," I said.

"Well the discussion is over anyway. I'm going," Sirius said.

"Cool," Harry said.

"Whatever, but you remember I was completely against this," I said.

"I will," Sirius said. "And when I don't get caught I'll be saying I told you so."

"I never said you'd get caught I was just telling you your risk factor," I said.

"Stop bickering you two. Tonks you know he's not going to change his mind," Molly said.

Moody walked in through the kitchen door.

"We've got to get going," Moody said.

"Grab your things and lets get going," Moody said.

One by one we all piled out Grimmauld Place.

Sirius, who was Snuffles at the point, was walking happily between Harry and Hannah.

We arrived at Kings Cross with a few minutes to spare so we were all able to say goodbye.

"God, when was the last time I was here?" I asked aloud.

"Does bring back some memories," Remus said.

"Harry!" a voice called out. Harry's face immediately went pink as a girl, clad in Slytherin robes dashed over. I recognized her as Kristen.

"Hey you," Harry said.

"You stopped writing to me," Kristen said sadly. "I thought maybe you'd forgotten about me. . ."

"Me forget you? Course not. You see, Hedwig got really sick so I couldn't have her out there flying around," Harry said. "That's all. Sorry about that."

"Oh, is she alright now?" Kristen asked turning to Hedwig's cage.

"Yep, right as rain," Harry said. "And as spunky as ever."

"I'm sure you'll want to sit with your friends during the ride but how's about coming to find me during lunch?" Kristen asked, twirling her fingers through her hair nervously.

"Actually, Ron and Hermione will be on Prefect duty and Hannah and Ginny already made arrangements for lunch, so you can just come to my cabin instead," Harry said.

Kristen smiled excitedly. "Sounds like a plan, then. Oh! And that reminds me, Hannah, Draco wanted me to tell you he made prefect. He's around here somewhere. He said you didn't write to him at all after you left his house."

"Yeah, well I was with Harry and Hedwig was sick so. . . That didn't happen," Hannah said quickly.

"Yeah, well, _obviously_ he's looking for you," Kristen said. "Anyway, Harry, it sounds like a plan."

"So, I'll see you at lunch time then," he said.

"Yep," she replied.

Then, Harry, to seal the deal, kissed her on the cheek. Kristen immediately flushed bright pink and giggled stupidly.

"Bye, Harry," she said in a high squeaky voice. She cleared her throat. "I mean, bye, Harry." Kristen turned and started to walk away, accidently knocking a few in the way Hufflepuff second years who she threatened. They dashed away and she made her way on to the train.

"Oh. My. God," Hannah said, almost laughing.

"What?" Harry asked.

"You couldn't even form a coherent sentence about Kristen when you talked about her a few weeks ago, and now look at her, she's pudding," Hannah said.

"It is a very vast improvement in your 'game' Harry. I remember when you couldn't even look at Cho Chang without drooling or getting orange juice all over yourself," Hermione said.

Harry rolled his eyes at her.

"And where do you get off throwing us out like that? We're on break during lunch," Ron said.

"You'll find something to do, I know Hannah will," Harry said smirking at Hannah. She leered at him.

_What's that about, I wonder._

"Oh, look, Hannah, it's your best friend, Draco, coming this way," Harry said.

Hannah turned away from us and motioned something the blonde boy I assumed was Draco. A moment later he boarded the train.

"Well, it's about that time, we'd better get going," Hannah said.

But just as she was about to step away a little blonde girl popped up.

"Hi, Fred!" she said.

"Emily. . . Hey," he said, trying to be cool, but that tell-tale red face all Weasley's got when they were embarrassed was apparent on his face.

"What's up you guys?" she asked.

"Oh, you know, the sky," Hermione said.

"Always funny, Hermione," the girl said with a mock laugh.

"So. . . What brings you here?" Fred asked. Clearly this was his girlfriend, Emily.

"Well, I saw Professor Lupin and I couldn't miss an opportunity to say hello. He is my favorite teacher after all," she said. "Haven't forgotten me, have you sir?"

"Of course not, Emily. How are you?" he asked.

"Swell," she said. "You look a lot healthier than the last time I saw you. You're doing well aren't you?"

"Yes I am. Thank you for noticing," he said.

"No problem," she said. Then she turned to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "And these are your parents, Fred?"

"Oh, yeah. Mum, Dad, this is Emily, my girlfriend. Emily, these are my parents," Fred said.

"Oh, it's so nice to meet you at last!" Mrs. Weasley said.

"Yes, Fred talks on you all the time," Mr. Weasley said.

"Does he really?" she asked turning to Fred. "Oddly enough, my own mother keeps begging me to pick a new subject of conversation as well."

"Well, it looks like it's really about that time. I'll see you guys later," Fred said.

He grabbed Emily's hand and his trunk and pulled them away.

"Whipped," George said.

"Indeed," Hannah said. "Anyway, we had all better get going."

Hannah hugged everyone and then knelt down to Sirius. "You stay out of trouble, Snuffles, and I'll try my best to."

The group walked away and boarded the train.

Moments later the train pulled away.

"Was Hannah acting weird?" Remus asked.

"I noticed too! She was very anxious about something," I said.

"Ah, if it isn't Auror Tonks who doesn't know the Potters," a voice hissed. I turned to see Lucius Malfoy. We'd rehearsed this routine.

"Yes. I just met them today. I was visiting my good friends the Weasley and elected to go with them to drop their children off. The Potters were staying with them," I said.

"Ah yes, they are very good friends with your son and daughter aren't they, Weasley?" Lucius said. Arthur ignored him. "I'm not sure I want Draco associating with a girl who associates with blood traitors."

Sirius growled at Lucius as he turned away. Remus stepped in front of Sirius.

Lucius looked back as he noticed that. "You'll want to put hat mutt on a leash, Nymphadora."

_Ignore him. . . He's not worth it. . ._

". . . And your dog is cute as well," Lucius said.

Moody almost couldn't grab Remus fast enough before he lunged at Lucius.

"This isn't Hogwarts boy. You can't pick fights on the playground," Moody said as Lucius walked away.

Remus brought his arm down.

"Let's just go before anyone else decides they want to pick a fight," I suggested.

And with that we returned to Grimmauld.


	12. Take Out

The children had been gone for several days now and a new sense of normality had fallen over Grimmauld. Mostly Molly and Arthur had been sleeping at home and I had been as well. I visited Sirius every day after work and Arthur and Molly popped up occasionally to see that no one was starving.

But seeing as how the children were now safely in the care of Dumbledore and they had been our number one priority the order was now left with very little to do.

I arrived at Grimmauld at eight o'clock as I always did after stopping off at home from work to change out of my auror robes, tripping over the umbrella stand alerting Sirius and Remus, the only two occupants of the house, to my presence.

I entered the kitchen today to find Sirius losing pathetically to Remus in a game of Wizard's Chess.

"Hello, boys," I said.

"Hi, Tonks," they said.

"So what's going on today?" I asked.

"I got a letter from Harry and Hannah today telling me I was being reckless and not to leave the house. Apparently Lucius recognized me and told his son," Sirius said. "She left off the 'ha-ha I told you so' because she felt certain that you would deliver it for her."

"We all told you not to go," I said

"Yeah ,whatever," Sirius said. "You know I don't listen."

"Yes, we know," Remus said. "Oh. . . Check mate."

"What? Again?" Sirius asked.

"You're no good mate," Remus said.

"Well at least I was good at what counted if you know what I mean," Sirius said.

"Ew," I said.

"Oi, I forgot, Tonks, do you find Hannah to be a hypothetical person?" Sirius asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"She asked me a question that I wasn't sure how to answer," Sirius said. "About. . . Boys."

"Well what'd she ask?" I asked.

"Well she asked my reaction if, hypothetically, she were dating a boy," Sirius said.

"Well Hannah doesn't lie to people and she tells you practically anything. I reckon she likes a boy and is thinking of asking him out is all. She's probably trying to get your approval before she goes through with it. I wouldn't worry too much," I said.

"Oh. Good, because you know I worry," Sirius said.

"Well Hannah's a pretty, intelligent girl. Boys probably throw themselves at her," Tonks said.

"That's the issue. All guys are perverts," Sirius exclaimed as he cleaned up the chess board. "To be honest at that age if you've got boobs you're like shit surrounded by flies and let's face facts, girls like Hannah already get hit on all the time by disgusting pigs."

"Not to mention they're at a high risk level for obtaining stalkers," Remus said.

"It's so worst case scenario with you two," I said.

"To be perfectly honest I may lose my head the day Hannah starts dating," Sirius said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Just because. . . Hannah's so innocent. I've always known her to be innocent and when a girl meets a boy and she think she's in love she just. . . She does stupid things," Sirius said.

"Do you really think Hannah is one of those girls?" I asked him. "Hannah has got to be the most childlike and innocent girl I've ever laid my eyes on."

"Hey, Tonks, why don't you have a boyfriend?" Sirius asked.

"Because it's difficult to sort out the losers from all the nice ones and half the time the nice ones are more trouble than the jerks. So I have to work through the jerks, then I have to sort among the good guys whose lives don't have so much drama and then finally there's the very small group of men who that would actually like an eccentric, scatter brained, clumsy, pink-haired, Hufflepuff like me for who I am," I admitted. "Guys are just too much work."

"I'm sorry it's so rough for you," Sirius chuckled.

"Now leave her alone, Sirius," Remus said.

"No, no. I have another question. Why are you always here?" Sirius asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You do have friends right?" Sirius asked.

"Well Bill's always traveling," I said.

"Not Bill. I mean like just like girl friends to hang out with," Sirius said.

"Well. . . No not really. I have my friend Becca but she likes clubs and things. I don't do well in crowds. I get hurt in small groups as it is," I said.

"So you mean to tell me that aside from Bill and this Becca girl we're the only friends you've got?" Sirius asked.

"Well. . . Yeah," I said.

"What's your excuse. I mean he's a werewolf-."

"Thanks for the words of encouragement," Remus said sarcastically.

"Sorry Moony, but really, he's a werewolf. I'm a convicted criminal, escaped convict sentenced to the dementors. There's a reason we have no friends. Why don't you?" Sirius asked.

"You don't need a lot of friends," I said. "It's a gift just to have a few loyal ones. I've already got that from that you guys."

"I'm deeply touched by your sentiment," Remus said. I smiled.

"Well your words may be true but you know what else is true? The greatest thing we will ever know is just to love and to be loved in return," Sirius said.

"Sirius. . . That's so sweet," I said.

"Yeah which is why you need to get yourself a man," he said. The smile left my face and I glared at him.

"Can't you be nice all the time?" I asked. He shook his head. The front door opened. "Expecting someone?"

"No," Sirius said. The kitchen door opened and in walked Snape.

Sirius rolled his eyes in disgust.

"Snape. Shouldn't you be teaching or something?" Sirius asked.

"It's Friday evening you dolt," I said rolling my eyes.

"Oh. . . Well shouldn't you be-."

"You needed something, Snape?" I asked before my cousin could let out anymore of his ignorant comments.

"Lupin," he said. Remus looked up at him, face blank as always, "Dumbledore has given me a rather curious assignment. This will put me out of reach of Hogwarts during the last week of October."

"Okay," he said.

"Dumbledore thought you might like to take over my classes while I'm away," he said.

Sirius snorted. "I'm sorry. It's just the thought of Remus teaching other people how to make a potion is just absolutely hilarious. He can barely make lemonade without fucking it."

"It tasted fine," Lupin said.

"If you drank it really quick," Sirius said.

"Again. . . Shut up," I said.

"As nice as that offer sounds I couldn't. There's a reason I'm not teaching there now," Remus pointed out.

"That's too bad. Thanks to their pleading, the parents of the students have grudgingly agreed to let you fill in as a substitute. Dolores isn't particularly pleased but she'll do anything to keep the people happy with Fudge and the ministry," Snape said.

"Oh yes. . . That toad woman is teaching there now," Lupin said bitterly. "The last thing I want to do is spend even a moment with that vile creature."

"Unfortunately you have to. Your new assignment is babysitting," Snape said.

"Well at least the children will be happy about that," I pointed out.

"A day away from Severus after an extended period of time will make anyone happy," Sirius said.

"I will not dignify that comment with a response," Snape said.

"Then what was that?" Sirius asked.

"Sirius, Snape, please shut up," I said.

"Fine," Sirius said. "He started it."

"He did not and you know it," I said. I sighed. "Such a child you are."

"Monday, the last week of October," Snape said. Remus nodded. "Oh yes your fifth year class..."

"What about it?" Remus asked.

"There are several new students two of which you should keep an eye on," Snape said.

"Who?" Remus asked.

"Sabrina is in both Slytherin and Gryffindor. Her mind is a mess," Snape said.

"That must suck," Sirius said. "Biggest rivalry in the school and you're in both houses. . . How exactly does that work by the way?"

"And then there's Kassia," Snape said ignoring Sirius.

"What's she in Hufflepuff and Slytherin? Awkward," Sirius said. Snape glared at Sirius for insulting this student that way. "Keep your trousers on. I was only joking."

"Why Kassia?" Remus asked.

"She's from Poland," he replied.

"So she speaks Polish?" Remus asked.

"No, she speaks English," Snape said. "Kassie is my god daughter."

"Oh! I see," Sirius said.

"You used to hit your head a lot when you were young didn't you?" I asked. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Remus promised.

"And whatever you do make sure Potter isn't sitting with his blasted girl friend. If have to watch them snogging during class one more time I'll be forced to do something unpleasant," Snape said.

"Oh come on now Snape. Washing your hair isn't that bad," Sirius said.

"Neither is showing an ounce of intelligence," Snape retorted.

"Nope that wouldn't hurt a bit," I said.

Sirius glared at me. "So you're agreeing with Snivellus now are you?"

"Well yes, he could use a bit of shampoo but you could just as easily use a bit of intelligence," I pointed out.

Sirius was still unsatisfied with my answer and turned his back to me.

"I disown you," he said.

"You're in no position to disown me. Technically we've both been disowned already so if you disown me from our previous disown. . .er. . .ship. . .ness you'll be all alone and be disowned by yourself," I said.

Remus and Snape exchanged glances before looking back to me with most quizzical looks on their faces.

"What?" they asked.

"I'm going to go now before their stupidity starts to rub off on me," Snape said.

"Good bye," Remus said.

Snape walked out of the kitchen without another word.

"Good job, Tonks. Your senseless babbling scared him off," Sirius said. I shook my head in pity. "So what's for dinner, Remus?"

"I was under the impression you had all that under control this being your house and all," Remus said.

"You know I can't cook, Moony. Remember the great cheeseburger disaster of sixth year?" Sirius asked. "Besides, live here too."

"You think I know how to cook?" he asked. Sirius rolled his eyes. "Do you know how to cook, Tonks?"

"Obviously. I live by myself after all. I'd starve otherwise," I said.

"No. . . I don't trust you," Sirius said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I still look at you and see a four year old," Sirius said.

"Then you'll starve, Sirius," I said.

"Remus'll starve too," Sirius pointed out.

"No he won't. You see, Remus isn't afraid of eating my food because he's a good friend. He can come over and eat at my house," I said.

"Hmm. . . This is true. All the same, how about we eat out tonight?" Sirius asked.

"Err. . . Sirius, you can't leave the house," Remus said.

"So? You can go out and bring the food back here and we can out on the balcony like we're eating out together," Sirius said.

"Well, it is supposed to be one of the last warm nights of the year. It would be a shame to spend it in doors," I said. "It's not a terrible idea, though I hate to think you only thought it up because you refuse to let me cook."

"You can cook tomorrow, how's that?" Sirius asked.

"I don't _want_ to cook. I'm just offended that you won't _let_," I said.

Sirius sighed. "So what are we having?"

"I dunno," I said.

"You should probably think your plans all the way through next time," Remus said. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey! Have you guys ever had Chinese food?" I asked.

"Fortune cookies, nothing much beyond that," Sirius said.

"Then Chinese it is. It come in these little white cartons with chop stick and-."

"Fortune cookies?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, fortune cookies," I said.

"Yeah," he cheered. "Now, Remus go with her."

"Why?" he asked. "She's perfectly capable of-."

"Well it's late and dressed like that some prat will more than likely try to rape her if she's alone," Sirius said.

"You're so worst case scenario," I repeated for the second time.

"So go with her so if some guy does come onto her you can go all werewolf on them," Sirius said. I rolled my eyes.

"I do not 'go werewolf' on people," Remus said.

"I'll be fine. I'm an auror after all," I said.

"So what? Some bloke is going to attack you, mark my words. I mean look at how you're dressed," Sirius said.

"I'll be fine-."

"Maybe we should dress you up like a nun," Sirius said.

"If I take Remus with me will you shut up?" I asked.

"Of course," he said.

I sighed. "Come on, Remus."

He got up from the table.

"Have a lovely trip," Sirius said. We walked out the kitchen without a word.

"It's funny," Remus began, "how he always gets his way by being a complete idiot."


	13. Shallow

Remus and I sat at a table in China One, the closest Chinese restaurant to Grimmauld. The pimpled, acne faced red head boy at the counter couldn't stop staring at me through his thick glasses. I sighed.

"Maybe I should've listened to Sirius," I said, "Or I could've at least worn my cloak but in any case that guy is really creepy."

"Well at least he won't attack you," Remus said.

"True but I don't feel very comfortable with him undressing me with his eyes either," I replied. I paused and looked at the boy. ". . . Does he seem familiar to you?"

"No," Remus said.

"I feel like I know this weirdo," I said.

"That's you," Remus said. He looked up at the clock. "We've been waiting for almost half an hour. Aren't they done yet?"

"They make their food right after you order it. Nothing's ready before hand. Just give it a minute," I said.

Just then the boy at the counter smiled as the small Chinese lady placed two large bags of food on the counter.

"Your food's ready," he called to us.

Remus and I got up and went to the counter.

"I put in some extra napkins and chop sticks for you," he added.

"Er. . . Thanks," I said grabbing one of the bags.

"And I'm Gary by the way," he added.

"Thanks. . . Gary," I said.

Remus and I walked out the door onto the dimly lit street.

"Creepy guy that Gary," Remus said. He took the bag from me.

"What'd you do that for? Not as if I'm weak," I said.

"I know. It's just that in the unlikely event that you fall down and destroy all the food I don't want to be the one to tell Sirius he can't have any fortune cookies," Remus replied.

"Well, I can't really argue with that logic now can I?" I asked.

The door to the China One opened and Gary dashed out. He ran up to us.

"Hey," he said.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"You're Nymphadora Tonks right? You work for the Ministry don't you?" he asked. I sighed.

"Oh, look, Tonks, a wizard," Remus said. I stared at him hard.

"Do I know you?" I asked.

"Yes. . . Well no. . . Sort of... I kinda. . . Push the supply cart around your office. Everyday you always take a box of paper clips, band-aids and four pencils," he said.

"Oh. . . I thought the supply cart guys name was Glen," I said.

"No. You always call me Glen but," he paused to chuckle, "my name's Gary."

"Right. . . Sorry about the name confusion Gary," I said. "I'll see you Monday."

"But wait," he said, "I was wondering, you know, if you weren't busy if you wanted to maybe get some coffee later. I know you like coffee. I always refill the machine twice a day because you drink six cups every morning and then two in the afternoon and I know you're not dating anyone because my cousin Becca-"

"Becca? Rebecca. Fudge's assistant? You're her cousin?" I asked. Gary nodded. "That's why you look familiar. You resemble her somewhat."

"Yeah. Everyone says that," he said. "So about that coffee?"

"Thanks for the offer but I don't really know you Gary," I said.

"Well of course not but the purpose of a date is so I can get to know you better, silly," he said.

"He's right, Nymphadora," Remus said.

"You're gunning for a stunning," I threatened. Remus chuckled as he looked away. "Gary, you just don't seem my type. You're more the type that I get Chinese food from and give me paper clips so I can link them all together and occasionally use them for paper and besides you know how these office romances always turn out."

". . . You're right. Romance in the work place always ends up in the gutter, but hell, at least I tired," Gary said. "I'll see you Monday then."

"Make sure you have pencils," I said. He smiled and walked off.

Remus watched until he was out of earshot. "Gunning for a stunning?"

"My mum used to say it. Don't judge me," I said. Remus laughed.

"And he's the supply cart guy. You could give him a chance," Remus said.

"No," I said. "I can do much better than Glen-."

"Gary," Remus corrected.

"See, I can't date someone whose name I can't remember," I said.

"Gee, Tonks, I never thought of you as shallow until this very moment," Remus said. I scoffed.

"I am not shallow," I protested.

"Yes you are. You wouldn't even give him a chance," Remus said.

"I would've if he were. . . You know. . . Less. . . Ugly," I said.

"You go by appearances too much," Remus said.

"I'm a metamorphagus. My whole being is based on appearance," I said.

"Shallow," he said.

"I am not shallow," I said.

"Tonks you're more shallow than a wading pool," he said.

888

I fell over the umbrella stand and landed face first on the floor.

"STAINS OF DISHONOR! BLOOD TRAITORS! FILTHY MUDLBOOD SOILING THE HOUSE BLACK-!"

Remus closed the curtain over her portrait as Sirius opened the kitchen door.

"Welcome back," he said. "I smelled the food before you fell."

"Only you," I said as climbed to my feet.

"Hope you brought a lot of food," Sirius said.

"I bought enough to feed us, the order and the kids. There's plenty," I said.

"Good because we've got a visitor," Sirius said slyly.

Remus and I exchanged glances as we entered the kitchen.

Bill stood at the table.

"Hello," he said.

"Bill!" I said. I dashed over and hugged him.

"Glad to see I'm well missed," he replied.

I released him. "I haven't seen you since you moved into the flat. How's Egypt?"

"Dry. . . Hot. . . Then freezing at night. . . Then dry and hot again," he said. "I've been back and forth to Gringotts a lot these days though."

"So you'll be staying home a lot more and that landlord can stop asking questions?" I asked.

"Why's he asking questions?" Bill asked.

"Well I have a roommate he's never seen before and I'm barely at home these days from being here all the time or doing things for the order," I said. "I don't see why he's complaining. The apartments a shit hole, he uses all the rent money to by his booze and he gets his money. Don't see what the deal is."

"Muggles are strange," Sirius said digging through one of the bags. He pulled out a chicken terriyaki stick. 'What's this?"

"Terriyaki chicken," I replied.

"I heard the kill rats in the back alley's of their stores and pass them off as chicken for those," Bill said.

Sirius looked curiously at the chicken then reached in a pulled out all 12 of them.

"I'll just give these to Buckbeak then," he said. "Be back in a jiffy."

He skipped out of the kitchen and went upstairs.

"So, Remus how've you been?" Bill asked.

"Can't complain," he replied.

"Good to know. I heard you're teaching at Hogwarts as a sub in a few weeks," Bill said.

"Yeah," Remus replied.

"Ginny raved about you when I was home from Christmas the year you taught her. Apparently everyone in Gryffindor was begging you to stay when you left for being a werewolf," Bill said.

"Well that was mostly because I was able to keep Severus from causing them too much trouble," Remus said.

"Ginny thought you were cute actually, but you didn't hear that from me," Bill said.

"Striking it from my memory as we speak," Remus said.

I pulled out carton of vegetable lo mein from the bag, grabbed some chopsticks and started to eat as the two of them chatted.

Sirius came back into the kitchen. "I suspect it was a nice change for Beaky compared to his usual meal of rats and mice."

"Good to know it," I said.

"So Bill I reckon you heard about all the trouble Tonks has been causing at the ministry," Sirius said.

"I have heard. Becca told me what you called Fudge," Bill said. "I'm surprised you still have a job."

"What'd you call Fudge?" Sirius asked.

"A low life, bottom feeding, douche bag, publicity whore," Bill said.

"To his face?" Sirius asked. I nodded. "Nymphadora Tonks, you are my hero."

"Well it was well deserved. Making me work all those hours and then telling me I had to go back the next week. I'd rather be out of a job than have to suffer dementors and death eaters everyday for no reason," I said.

I slurped a noodle which slapped me in the eye and burned me.

Bill chuckled. "Same old Tonks. . . You didn't happen to go to China One for this did you? Becca's cousin works there part time."

"Oh, yeah, Glen," I said.

"Gary," Remus corrected.

"Can't even get his name right? Wow, how shallow and rude," Bill said.

"I am not shallow," I said crossly.

"Typical Tonks. You were shallow when we were in school too and just as in denial about it then," Bill said.

I sighed. "I am not shallow. I'm just. . . Very selective."

"Shallow," Bill said.

"And you're not?" I asked.

"Well I don't lie about it, and look me. I can get any girl I want," Bill said. "You remember what they used to call me in Hogwarts?"

I sighed. "Adonis."

"Exactly," Bill said.

"And I can't get any guy I want?" I asked.

"Well yeah you can but you push away all the nice ones," Bill said. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"I'm shallow," Sirius admitted. "I despise ugly women. I think they should all wear masks."

I pulled a fortune cookie from the bag and pulled it from its plastic wrapper. I opened it.

"What's it say?" Remus asked curiously.

"'Your standards aren't as deep as you may believe,'" I said.

Sirius giggled. "The fortune cookie called you shallow."


	14. A Little Goodbye Snog Never Hurt Anyone

I had been doing a good job of sleeping at my own house until the next day when Sirius got sick.

Sirius stayed sick for about two weeks. Apparently he had mono.

Much to Sirius' dismay right after he got better, that Sunday we had a meeting.

"We're still keeping a close watch on Lucius Malfoy. That snake is definitely up to something," Kingsley said. "As far as the ministry's case against Dumbledore they're getting really angry with him for not having done anything wrong."

"As long as he stays on that card he's happy. I keep telling you," Bill said casually.

"The case against Harry and Hannah however. . ." Kingsley began. "Things aren't look so good."

"What do mean 'not looking so good?'" Sirius asked.

"Apparently Dolores Umbridge has sent back to the ministry about them being problem children and they need to be investigated to see if their mental stability is in check," Severus put in.

"And that helps her how?" Sirius asked.

"As far as Harry goes he's already gotten two weeks of detention which is a nice change not to see Hannah there anymore," Snape said.

"Why'd they get in trouble in the first place?" Remus asked.

"From McGonagall has told me, apparently Umbridge has taken away their right to use magic in her class. When Miss Granger, Mister Weasley and the Potters quite obviously put in their two sense she hit a nerve with the twins that quite obviously made them both rather angry considering what she said," Snape said.

". . . What'd she say?" Sirius asked curiously.

"First and foremost she went on about their previous teachers, making a point to call you out, Lupin," Severus said. "And as we all know you're Hannah's favorite and she made a point to call Umbridge incompetent and even went so far as to compare her to Gilderoy Lockhart."

Sirius shook his head in pity. "Well at least she was standing up for a just cause. What about Harry?"

"The boy doesn't know when to stop talking. They got on about Diggory and he got a week of detention and he got thrown out of class."

"Poor kids," I said. "It's them against the world. . ."

"Not really," Remus said.

"Well that's what they feel like. Stuck at that school, no place to go. Kids taunting them and calling them crazy. The entire Wizarding World is eating up the Daily Prophet and spitting it out on them. They probably feel more alone than we can possibly imagine," I said. "The way things look for them at school, they're not going to stand a chance if the ministry wants to check their mental stability because they're under to much stress to think clearly."

"Hmm. . . Alright then. . . This is what we'll do in order to keep them out of prison. Remus, when you go to Hogwarts to sub for Severus on keep a close eye, a very close on them," Moody said. "Constant vigilance!"

I rolled my eyes at this.

"I recommend you keep an especially close one on Hannah," Severus said.

"Why Hannah?" Remus asked.

"Because she seems to be the one taking the bulk of the heckling, considering the 'new crowd' she's fallen into," Severus said. "She's spending an awful lot of time with the Slytherins."

"What is the sudden infatuation those two have with Slytherins?" Sirius asked.

"Oh. . . So you don't know then," Severus said with a smirk. Sirius' eyes narrowed on him.

"What don't I know? I know everything. They tell me everything," Sirius said. Severus chuckled.

"Certainly the boy does but apparently someone likes to keep secrets from you," Snap said. He shook his head. "Tisk, tisk. Just imagine all the trouble she could be getting into that you will never know about."

"You two stop it right now," Moody said. "I won't have you bring your childhood quarrels into this meeting. . . Now that that's settled, Tonks."

"Yes, Alastor?" I asked.

"What've you found out at the ministry?" Moody asked.

"Nothing much sadly. It's the same old Lucius dropping hints about stuff he knows. Nothing has come across my path," I said.

"Have you attempted to do any digging?" Moody asked.

"No. I haven't had the chance to think to attempt to dig. Fudge has got Percy Weasley watching me like a hawk these days and Rufus is doing his best in to insure that I stay at my desk and don't leave," I said.

"And when you're off duty?" Moody asked.

"I'm here, taking notes at meeting just like this one," I said showing him my notepad with my chicken scratch hand writing.

"You've gotten lazy Nymphadora," Moody said.

"For the love of Helga Hufflepuff, don't call me that," I growled. "And as for being lazy, I could be a lot worse. I could be Mundungus."

"What?" he asked waking suddenly from his sleep. I looked to Moody, Fletcher's actions proving my point.

"I'm doing the best I can with what I got but since Scrimgeour's and Fudge's suspicion of me have grown the level of pull I have there has decreased. I've hit a dead end," I said. "Yet so far the only thing I've managed to do is pull them off Hannah and Harry but in truth, as a whole, the Order hasn't done much either."

Everyone exchanged silent glances.

"We're waiting on something. Just one thing to happen that could turn us around because as it is right now none of us can really do anything but try stuff out and pray that our assumptions are right," I said.

Silence still engulfed the room.

"That, Tonks, is the most brilliant thing I've heard you say, ever," Kingsley said. "And though you may be right, we still have to try."

I nodded.

"So what's the course of action we'll be taking up until the next meeting?" Moody asked.

"Snape is going to be out on assignment this evening and I'll be at the school keeping an eye on the twins in his absence," Remus said.

"And that's all we've got?" Moody asked. I nodded. "Then meeting adjourned."

Slowly everyone left out of the room and all that was left were Sirius, Remus, Severus, Kingsley, Moody, Bill and me.

"You two will be heading off soon I suspect," Moody said as he, Kingsley and Bill headed for the door.

"As soon as I pack up here," Remus said.

"And I give him further direction. We all know Remus is severely untalented with potions," Severus said.

No one retorted him. Remus was pretty bad.

"Don't stay up too late, Tonks," Bill said.

"You either," I said.

He nodded and the trio left.

"Further direction?" Remus asked.

"Mister Potter is not allowed to sit next to his girl friend. Nor is Mister Weasley," Snape said.

"Hermione?" Sirius asked.

"No. He's dating that one girl. . . Violet. . . or something. . . I know it was some shade of purple," Snape said.

"Lavender," Remus corrected him.

"That's the one," Snape said. "Weasley is not to sit with Lavender Brown. Fred and George are not allowed to sit in the back of the classroom especially in the company of Angelina and Lee. If anything goes wrong with anyone's potion in your fifth year class refer them to Hannah. Quite often you'll see this problem with Longbottom and as of late Potter. If Hannah finishes her potion early she'll probably fall asleep. I've learned just to leave her. Usually she'll wake up by the time class is over. And as for your fourth year class Weasley and Lovegood are constantly chatting with each other. If their talking persist separate them but be sure not to sit either one of them next to Creevey or your efforts will have been moot," Severus explained.

". . . It's good to see you know your students so well," Remus smiled. Severus rolled his eyes.

"If you need help grading any of your potions use Hannah and give her a respectable amount of house points for her time so she doesn't complain about you using her free time," Severus added.

"Is that all?" Remus asked.

Severus nodded and left without another word.

Sirius grabbed a glass of orange juice and sat on the edge of the table.

"Happy to be going back to your old career?" he asked.

"Thrilled," Remus said, no hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"We've made sure no word of this got to the children so it'll be a surprise when they see you," I said.

"I'll expect a few complaints as well. Hermione's just learned to stop calling me Professor," Remus said.

"Poor thing," I said.

"It's gonna be awful boring without you here," Sirius said.

"I'll be here," I said. "I'll stay the whole week while he's gone."

"Alright, as long as you promise to feed me as well," Sirius said.

"You'll actually let me cook?" I asked.

". . . Possibly," Sirius said.

"Alright then," I said. I turned to Remus. "I promise I won't poison him or anything."

"And make sure he behaves himself as well," Remus said.

"I do behave myself just fine thank you," Sirius said crossly. He took a swig of his orange juice and started to cough. He then cleared his throat. "That pipe is for breathing. . . Not for juice apparently."

"And that's why she has to keep an eye on you," Remus said. "Though I'm equally worried about your safety as well."

"I promise not to fall down until you return," I said.

"I'll hold you to that, Tonks," he said. I smiled.

Sirius coughed again. "I think there was a seed in my juice. . . There's something in my throat." he coughed again. "I'll see you later, Moony."

Sirius left the kitchen, still coughing.

"I'm worried about him," I said.

"You should be," Remus said.

"Oh, I just realized Saturday's Halloween. You won't be here," I said.

"I know. Hogwarts is having a dance on Saturday and-."

"Hannah would rip you a new one if you didn't stay," I finished.

"Well Dumbledore's going to rip me a new if I'm not at Hogwarts in a bit. I'd better be going," He said.

"Well. . . Bye," I said. I gave him a tight hug.

"See you," he said.

As if out of reflex I kissed his cheek.

"Bye," I repeated.

I tried my very best to keep from turning red, as Remus had already.

"Bye," he said.

He turned and left, quicker than he usually did.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" Sirius asked from the door. I turned around to him. "I saw that."

"I was saying goodbye," I said rolling my eyes.

"You don't usually say goodbye that way," Sirius pointed out.

"He's going to be gone for a while and like you said, it's going to be terribly boring without him," I said.

"You don't say goodbye to Bill or Kingsley or Mad-Eye that way," Sirius pressed on.

"Bill is like my brother, Kingsley is my boss and my face isn't going anywhere near Moody's," I said.

Sirius nodded. "You can keep fighting for now, but eventually your feelings are going to jump up and you won't be able to control them."

He walked out of the kitchen.

The nerve of that man. To insinuate that I had feelings for Remus. I'd known him since I was four years old for Merlin's sake! He helped baby sit me on occasion. I couldn't possibly have feelings for that man. He was merely my friend and I saw nothing wrong showing a small bit of affection towards my friends. There was no point in getting worked up over something that wasn't even true, not true in the slightest.


	15. The Mission

I picked up my files and put them in the box. It was the first time in a long time that I'd actually managed to finish all of my work by the end of the day and not have it backed up over the course of the coming weeks.

I walked the box over to Kingsley's desk and sat them down.

"Finished work apparently," he said.

"Yep and I'm heading out right now," I said.

"Not just yet. Scrimgeour wants to see you in his office before you go," Kingsley said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Apparently he's a got a mission lined up for you," Kingsley said.

"Oh boy, more Azkaban duty," I said not pretending to be excited.

"No. Actually he says it's something to do with Fenrir Greyback," Kingsley said.

"Greyback he. . . He's like one of the most wanted guys. . . Ever," I said.

"Number two after Sirius," Kingsley said. There was a look of slight worry on his face. I stared at him confusedly and then walked away.

I went down to Scrimgeour's office and knocked on his door.

"Come in," he said. I pushed it open and he looked up at me from his desk. "Ah, Miss Tonks. I was wondering when you were going to stop by."

"I was just on my way out when Kingsley informed me," I said.

"Yes. As you know, the full moon will be coming up in a few weeks. There's a person in particular, Kevin Fitzpatrick, who's being threatened by a werewolf, Fenrir Greyback. I'm sure you've heard of him," Scrimgeour said. I nodded. "Well the man he's threatening is an attaché to the United States. He's off duty for the time being and resides here in England. We have reason to believe that Greyback fully intends to infect or kill him. I'd like you to protect him."

"But I thought he only goes after children?" I asked.

"That's usually the case yes. When he's been upset or offended he'll use attack the child of the person who's insulted him. Being Mr. Fitzpatrick is neither married nor has children so Greyback has taken it upon himself to attack him personally," Scrimgeour explained. "Aside from what you know about Greyback you'll have to do a bit more research on his background, find out what kind of person he is. Get into his head. Review transcripts from his previous trials. You'll need them all. And then, during the week of the full moon you'll meet with Fitzpatrick. Do you tink you can handle this or should I hand this over to Dawlish?"

"No sir. I can handle this," I said.

"This is a career making case, Miss Tonks. I trust you won't mess it up," Scrimgeour said.

I nodded and headed out.

888

"I don't think you should do it," Sirius said.

"Why not?" I asked. "I know I can do this."

"I don't think you can," Sirius said. "And I'm not saying that to bring you down because you know I love you, I'm saying it because it doesn't make sense for them to give you an assignment of this magnitude right after they were debating on whether or not they should fire you. They think you're working for Dumbledore. They want you out. You're still wet behind the ears as far as being an auror goes. They want you to mess up so they'll have an excuse to get rid of you."

I sighed that annoyed sigh I constantly had with Sirius.

"I can promise you that you won't learn anything about that sick bastard from a book. Remus can tell you the most chilling tales you'll ever hear about him. You won't sleep for a week without having nightmares," Sirius said. "He'll kill you Tonks."

"You don't have any faith in me as far as this mission goes?" I asked.

"I do. . . Just not enough that would pacify me," Sirius said. "I think it would be a good idea if you turned down the case."

"Turn down the case?" I asked.

"Yes," Sirius said.

"I can do this," I said.

"I'd advise against it," Sirius said. "I'm telling you they're-."

"I don't want to hear it," I said.

"Fine. New subject," Sirius said. "Remus sent us a letter. He says Hannah's acting funny."

"Funny how?" I asked.

"Like paranoid funny," Sirius said. "She's hiding something."

"What could she be hiding?" I asked.

"God only knows," Sirius said shaking his head. "Molly's coming over by the way. She's under the impression we'll blow something up without Remus here."

"I wouldn't put it past us, to be honest," I said. Sirius chuckled.

On cue the kitchen door opened and Molly and Arthur walked in.

"Hello, Tonks. I heard all about that case Scrimgeour gave you. What on earth was he thinking?" Arthur asked.

"Wait? You don't think I can handle it?" I asked.

Arthur looked slightly ashamed and turned his head to his feet.

"Now Tonks it's not that we think you can't handle it we just think you can't handle it _yet_," Molly said. "I mean after all Greyback is not someone to be taken as lightly as he's making it sound. I think they may be looking for a reason to sack you or worse."

I looked over at Sirius who was looking rather pleased at the conversation now taking place.

"Oh don't you get all smug," I said crossing my arms.

"Don't be upset dear we just think this is a bit beyond your level, after all, I dare say Moody would rather not have dealings with Greyback," Molly said.

"What's this about Greyback?" Moody asked as he entered on cue. He looked to me. "Is this about the mission Scrimgeour gave you so he could get rid of you?"

I groaned. "Is that what you all think?"

"Pretty much," Moody said. "Don't take it personally."

I scoffed.

"Bit late for that don't you think?" I asked.

Molly went to work on dinner as I sank down into my chair.

Maybe this case was bigger than I could handle. Everyone did know a lot more about Greyback than I did and I was still a "noob" as far as they were concerned. But still they could be a little more supportive of me and at least try to have faith in my efforts. If I was able to complete this mission it would prove to the Order and Scrimgeour, Fudge, and the smug Percy Weasley, that I was actually able to manage myself in the job that I trained my ass off to get.

Then again if I was wrong and Greyback was too much for me to handle I'd be out of a job, they'd all be saying "I told you so" and there was also the likely possibility that this would result in my death if I failed.

But as always this was a chance I had to take and I had a month to prepare. I'd be sure to be ready.

Moody groaned. "Ugh, you're gonna do it aren't ya girl?"

"Of course I am, Moody. Did you expect me to do otherwise?" I asked.

"Not really," he answered honestly. "I cling to desperate hope when I think that you're going to do as you were trained."

"Of course I'll do as I was trained and there's barely a thing that could go wrong," I said. "I'll do the proper research, I'll engrave the location into my brain, get a good understanding of my charge and after that all I have to do is-."

"Take on the biggest, baddest, werewolf to ever come into existence single handedly, and manage to protect your charge and keep yourself alive," Sirius said.

"Well when you say it like that." I crossed my arms.

"You want me to cover the truth up in ice cream and frosting?" Sirius asked.

"Sometimes you should. It'd make me feel better," I said.

"Well I'm not trying to make you feel better," Sirius said.

"I'm taking this case regardless of your input on it, Cousin," I said.

"Just remember, you've been warned, several times, by more than one person," he pointed out. I forced a smile and quickly wiped it away.

"Oh! I know exactly who'll knock some sense into you," Molly said. "Remus would definitely agree."

"And if anyone can talk sense into you about Greyback it's Remus," Moody said. "He seems to be the only one you even listen to these days."

Molly smiled.

"What's the grin all about, Molly?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said still smiling.

"Molly. . . You're not thinking. . ."

"It's just a thought," she said.

"Molly! It's Remus for Merlin's sake," I said. She was the second person to suggest that I had feelings for him. Quite absurd.

"Well how do you explain how you're able to pay so much attention him and so little to. . . Say me?" Sirius asked.

"How about I like him more than you," I said.

"You shouldn't play favorites," Sirius said.

"I'm not. My occasional dislike for you stems from reflex and has nothing to do with my freewill or choice," I said getting up from my seat and heading toward the door upstairs.

"If you hate me don't lie about it," Sirius said.

I put my departure on hold to stop and hug Sirius.

"Oh, you're still my favorite," I said.

"Huzzah," he said.

"I'm going to go take a nap. Wake me when dinner's ready," I said.

"All that sleeping's not healthy for you. You'll start getting headaches," Arthur warned.

"Well when they start I'll be sure to stop sleeping," I said.

I walked out of the room walked upstairs to my room. I collapsed down onto my bedroom. I was more tired than I had originally suspected so I fell asleep immediately.

888

There was knocking on my door.

"Tonks. . . Tonks. . . Nymphadora!"

I sat up and looked around.

"Get up," he said. I got out of bed and walked out. "What'd you do? Take an elephant tranquilizer?"

"No. I just laid down and totally conked out," I said. "I guess I was just tired."

"You slept until morning," Sirius said.

"Are you joking?" I asked.

"No," he said. He shuffled around in his pockets. "And this came for you this morning." He pulled out a letter.

"Who's it from?" I asked.

"I sent a quick owl to Remus about your mission. Just. . . See what he says."

Sirius walked downstairs as I opened the letter, leaning against the door frame as I read it.

_Tonks,_

_I heard through the grapevine (and by grapevine I mean your cousin and Molly) about your latest mission. It's up to you to take the mission because you've got control of your own life, you're an adult and you know exactly what you're capable of. It isn't anyone else's place to tell you if you're not up to it. Of course the fact that you're being told to protect someone against Greyback is a bit unsettling and I personally wouldn't do it again not especially considering the outcome. But I digress, I don't know your abilities as a witch and telling you that you couldn't do it simply because of your level of maturity wouldn't be fair. One's maturity level is no clear indicator of their abilities. Look at Sirius. He's as immature as they get but he's a damn good wizard. I trust your mind is already made up though and in that case, good luck. Just be careful._

_Quite Sincerely,_

_Remus_

I sighed. Subtlety was this man's forte. But it was clear, knowing Remus, that like everyone else he was terrified out of his mind of what would happen if I went up against a werewolf, but at the same time he was the only one actually leaving the decision up to me instead of telling I'd have to be an idiot to go through with it or not.

I folded up the letter and shoved it into my pocket.

Today my assignment would begin. I needed to do some heavy research on Greyback and that didn't require me returning to the auror office. I needed to visit the hall of records.

I changed quickly and headed down to the kitchen.

"So, what did he say?" Sirius asked as I poured myself a cup of coffee.

"That it was my decision. That I know perfectly what I'm capable of and no one else can decide for me," I said. Sirius chuckled. "I know it's his way of saying 'For the love of God, Tonks don't do it,' but. . . I need to. Just so I know I can because I can feel it in my gut that I can do this."

"You don't need to prove anything to anyone, Tonks," Sirius said.

"I need to prove to myself that I can do this Sirius. It's not about anyone else," I said. "You spend so much time doing paperwork and guarding prisoners you forget your training and everything that you learned that you worked so hard to get to. . . I need to prove to myself that I am not just this clumsy fall about witch who's an auror because she's a metamorphagus. I mean Moody trained me and he was the best. I know I can be the best too. I just need a situation where I can show it to not only everyone else but to myself as well."

"Self doubt?" Sirius asked. I nodded.

"I'm the youngest witch in that office for a reason," I said. "And there's a reason that I'm the last one that's been hired in three years."

Sirius sighed. "I love you like a sister, Tonks, you know that?" I nodded. "If you get hurt, I'll have to come out of hiding and actually commit murder."

"I know you would," I said.

"Good," Sirius said. "Now go on and. . . Do whatever. What exactly are you doing today?"

"Rule number one Sirius, know thy enemy," I said.


	16. The Girl With the Memory Lapses

"I never agreed to help with this," Sirius said. I'd brought back a ton of papers, books, newspaper articles and other things to that affect from the ministry and Sirius was commandeered to help me sort through them.

"Well I need your help, Cousin. I mean if I can't do this I'm literally dead," I said.

I was sifting through old newspapers. I saw too many articles where the headline read Young Child Survives Werewolf Attack.

"Oi, Tonks look at this," Sirius said. I looked over at what he had. It was a very old case file. I glanced it over.

"Greyback attacked a six-year-old boy. How is that any different from the other ones?" I asked.

"The victim," Sirius said pointing. I looked at the name.

_Remus J. Lupin_

"Oh. . ." I said.

"Didn't really expect to come across his," Sirius said.

"No. . . I just grabbed Greyback's entire file. There were boxes of victims. I'd just forgotten that. . . He was one of them," I said.

The front door opened, Molly walked in.

"Tonks, you didn't come back down for dinner last night. I was a bit worried about you," she said.

"I'm alright. I just conked out for some reason. Probably just letting myself relax after getting done with all that paperwork I had," I assured her.

"Good but, Tonks, you can't take over the whole bloody kitchen with your new work," she said. "We get enough papers left in here after meetings."

"Sorry, Molly," I said gathering them up.

"Oh, did you hear from Remus?" Molly asked.

"Oh. . . Yeah," I said.

"What did he say?" Molly asked.

"He said that he didn't know my abilities and was therefore not in a position to decide whether or not I should take the case. He did say, however, that I know better than anyone else exactly what I'm capable of and should be able to determine if I'm up for this or not," I said.

Molly rolled her eyes. "That's such a Remus answer."

_Yeah, Remus, succeeding where others have failed, gets Molly to stop harassing me._

"Anyway, I stopped by, Sirius to see if Remus had written back about the children," she said.

"Not much to tell I'm afraid. Apparently your children are very well behaved. . . Well except Fred and George but they haven't done anything out of the ordinary," Sirius said.

Molly nodded, though obviously not satisfied with his vague answer.

"I'm sure they're just as pleasant, if not more, at school as they are here," I said.

"No offense, but that doesn't inspire much hope," Sirius said.

Molly rolled her eyes. "Do you two have enough to eat this evening then?"

"Yep, plenty of leftovers and if Sirius gets greedy I can always cook," I said. Molly giggled. I tried my very best not to glare at her.

"Well I'll be going then. Send me an owl if Remus tells you anything," she said.

"Will do," Sirius said. Molly waved goodbye and left out.

"And back to my case," I said laying my papers back out.

"That's very childish," Sirius said.

"There's not enough room in the library, we don't have any meetings coming up," I began.

"And where are we supposed to eat?" Sirius asked.

"In the lounge like the animals we are," I said beginning to read through files again.

"How's Andromeda?" Sirius asked.

I stopped. "Uh. . . She's fine to my knowledge."

"To your knowledge?" Sirius asked.

"Well I haven't heard from my parents in a few months," I said.

"Why not?" Sirius asked.

"Well. . . they were kind of smothering me. I needed to get away from them for a bit," I said. "I can't talk to them now when I have this case."

"When the last time you spoke?" Sirius asked.

I shrugged. "We spoke a few times right after I joined the Order to give you some time frame."

"Good Godric Gryffindor, woman. That was July," Sirius said.

_It was June actually._

"It never occurred to you to stop by, say hello, and let them know you're alive and well. You're an auror; they probably worry about you," he went on.

"Well that's exactly why I haven't spoken to them," I said. I put down my files and turned to face Sirius. "Dumbledore trusts my parents with the whole of his soul. They're there for any help Dumbledore might need with the Order of the Phoenix. Naturally they're absolutely petrified that their daughter, their only child, is now not only fighting insane dark wizards, but Death Eaters too. I just need some air for now."

"It's nearly November now. You take in anymore air you'll pop like a balloon," Sirius said.

"The Greyback case. I can't," I said.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

I picked up a file and read a note that someone had made in it to Sirius. "Because… 'He is the most dangerous criminal presently at large.' Parents don't want their daughter up against a guy like that."

"No one with any kind of good soul wants that for anyone," Sirius said.

"My point is that my mother and my father still look at me as the 11 year old girl who got an owl sent home her first day of school that said she'd broken her leg falling down the main stairs at Hogwarts," I explained. "They never wanted me to be an auror. I'm not going to talk to them now of all times."

"I think you're just avoiding them," Sirius said.

I stuck my tongue out at Sirius.

"So, to help you with your 'mission' what exactly are you supposed to be researching?" Sirius asked.

"A pattern. Something similar about the way he attacks," I said.

"Children," Sirius said.

"I know, I know, but I'm protecting an adult. Some guy your age," I said.

"Some guy my age?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. Usually when someone offends Greyback he goes after their children but this guy, Kevin, is single and unmarried and has no children therefore he's got no one to go after except Kevin himself," I explained.

"So he's going to kill this guy because he has no children?" Sirius asked.

"Well from what I understand there's a more likely possibility that he'll just try to turn him," I said. "He's determined to infect as many people as possible when they're as young as possible but considering the circumstances he hasn't got much of a choice right now has he? Of course that doesn't mean I shouldn't be prepared in the event that he does try to kill Kevin."

"Have you met this Kevin fellow yet?" Sirius asked.

"It's on my list of things to do," I said.

888

I was sitting on my bed rummaging through my files. The case was three weeks from today so I was trying my best to get as much work for it done as I possibly could.

Just then the front door opened. I heard Sirius say something cheerfully.

It was about time Remus got back.

I walked out of my room and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Remus was in there, his bag occupying an empty chair.

"Wotcher, Remus," I said with a smile. He looked up at me.

"Oh, good, you're here too," he said. I glanced over at Sirius.

"Duh," I said.

"You don't look very good Moony. What's got your wand in a knot?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing's got my wand in a knot. It's Hannah," Remus said.

"What about her?" Sirius asked.

"Yesterday evening I was patrolling the hallways on the sixth floor. Everything seemed quiet until Hannah came down, looking for me," he explained.

"In the dead of night?" I asked. Remus nodded.

"She was soaked from head to toe, muddy all over and her hands were cut and bleeding," Remus explained. "She was in a right state and could barely get any words out to say anything she was desperate to not cry. I took her to the hospital wing and asked what happened but she didn't remember."

"She was outside obviously," Sirius said.

"Yes, she knows that but she didn't remember ever going outside, getting out of bed, or even falling asleep after the dance," Remus went on. "Her memory completely lapsed. She did something she has no memory of."

"Is she alright?" Sirius asked.

"Yes she's perfectly alright if not just a touch frightened," Remus continued.

"What do you expect happened?" I asked. Remus shrugged.

"I really couldn't tell you," he said. Sirius sighed, his concerned parent look on his face.

"What happened to her hands?" Sirius asked.

"Looked like she'd been handling a shovel spade," Remus answered.

"What could she be doing in the dead of night, cutting her hands on a shovel in the middle of a thunder storm?" Sirius asked. "And a better question still, why doesn't she remember?"

Just then there was a tapping on the window in the lounge. Sirius walked out and a moment later dashed in, a letter in hand.

"It's from Hannah," Sirius said opening. He started to read it out loud, "'Dear Snuffles, I expect by now Lupin told you what happened last night. First I'd like to assure you that I am perfectly okay. Madame Pomfrey healed my hands and they're no longer sore from being cut and there's nothing else physically wrong with me. At first I couldn't explain the memory lapse until this morning when Hermione told me of something that happened late last night. Someone has carved the dark mark into Hagrid's door leaving nothing behind but the spade of a shovel. My first thought was not to panic and it's quite clear that I'd obviously done it. It didn't make sense until I remembered my scar hurting quite terribly when I'd 'woken up' so to speak.'"

"I remember her telling me that," Remus said.

"'I told Harry who referred me to Ginny'. . . Why would he tell her to talk to Ginny?" Sirius asked.

"Oh! Oh!" I said it all hitting me at once. "Ginny, her first year when the chamber of secrets opened, she was telling, Voldemort was able to control her body, possess her to be blunt about it. And she was being controlled she said she was always waking up in random places that she'd never gone to or that she shouldn't be there and that there were great chunks of her memory missing."

". . . Yeah, that's what Hannah says. She reckons Voldemort might be controlling her," Sirius said, his voice getting dark.

"This might explain a few more things," I said.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"How Lucius found out about the Order. If Hannah has been being controlled since the summer, and I expect she might have been that could explain-."

"Why Voldemort has so much information about what we're up to," Remus said. "Hannah's been living at head quarters all summer. We can only begin to imagine exactly how much she knows what the other's know and what they've told her."

"Or rather what they've told Voldemort," I said.

"This is all speculation," Sirius said.

"But it fits, Sirius. If Voldemort has really been controlling then it would make sense that he knows all these things. Why Lucius Malfoy has been dropping all these hints about the Order," I said.

"Then why is her memory only just beginning to lapse now?" Sirius asked.

"You ever notice how tired Hannah always during the summer? I'll be willing to bet you anything he was only controlling her when she was asleep and she never even realized she'd done something else. Probably getting information about the Order from Hermione and Ginny and everyone else," I said.

Sirius shook his head. "I won't believe it."

"Believe it," a voice at the door said. We looked over to see Dumbledore. "Sit, please."

We all took a seat at the table and Dumbledore sat with us.

"It is my understanding that Voldemort has been controlling Hannah," Dumbledore said. "We've discussed this before that Harry and Hannah have a connection to Voldemort. That's why they kept having that dream last year, when Voldemort was giving orders to Crouch Junior. They could see what Voldemort could see and it is very possible that Voldemort is aware of this connection and it would make sense that he could sense it in Hannah before he noticed it in Harry."

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"From the time she was very young Hannah has always been a bit controlling and convinced she's always right and it's hard to argue with her considering she is a naturally intimidating person and that a great deal of the time she is right. And above anything else, Hannah has a lot of power. She has a great deal of influence over the entire magical world," Dumbledore explained

"Not so much anymore. Everyone thinks she's crazy," I said.

"But you don't see Tonks; I challenge you to read the Daily Prophet and see if her name isn't mentioned. Of course now people look at her as a joke but they still pay her very much attention. She and her brother have managed to send the entire ministry into a frenzy simply because there's a 'very slight chance' that she could be right because she's encountered these things before," Dumbledore said. "A few more things to add to the list are her blatant disregard for the rules, her very powerful persuasion tactics and her ability to instill fear in her peers and the very world itself."

"What are you getting at sir?" Remus asked.

"Hannah, more so than Harry, is like Voldemort," Dumbledore said. "We could tell this the night that Lily and James were murdered. That is why she lived at Hogwarts and not with the Dursleys or at an orphanage so she could be looked after and make sure she didn't turn out to be like him."

"So that's why he can control Hannah because they're so similar?" Sirius asked. Dumbledore nodded.

"That, incidentally, is also the reason she and Harry were separated. When Voldemort started to develop his magical powers as a child they came off as a bit violent," Dumbledore said.

"Violent?" I asked.

"He never hurt people, mostly animals. . . Never intentionally and it happened with Hannah. Growing up when she'd angry things would. . . break or shatter into thousands of pieces," Dumbledore said.

"Scary much," I said.

"But you see my point," Dumbledore went on. We all nodded. "Hannah nor Harry knows why they were separated and given the state of things I think it's best we keep it that way."

Sirius was looking sulky on the other side of the table.

"Don't let these memory lapses weigh heavy on your mind, Sirius. I can promise you Hannah will not be hurt. I'll be keeping a very close watch on her from now on and I'm sure Harry and Ginny will be as well. You've got nothing to worry about," Dumbledore said. Sirius nodded though he obviously wasn't satisfied. "In the meantime, Tonks, I was wondering if I could ask you about your latest assignment from the ministry. Everyone in the Order is talking about it."

"Not to mention they're discouraging it. Tell me, sir, what do you think?" I asked.

"I think that it's quite a large mission given to someone who's viewed as being so small in the auror office, Tonks. However, I remember your days at Hogwarts. No one could out score you in Defense Against the Dark Arts, you scored highest in that subject on both your OWL exams and your NEWT. Since then you've proven yourself to be talented as a witch beyond the realm that anyone, even I myself shamefully admit, thought possible for you," Dumbledore said. "I think that you'll make Scrimgeour regret the day he ever decided to try to get rid of you through such harsh means."

"Gee, Professor, that means a lot coming from you," I said.

"Yes Tonks, but remember, this mission should not be taken lightly. As you no doubt have heard several times from Sirius that Fenrir Greyback is not an ordinary man, death eater, or werewolf. He is very dangerous and you should not under any circumstances go through with this mission if you feel you are the slightest bit unprepared," Dumbledore said. "There are more important things than your job at the ministry, like your life. And don't think that for a second that working at the ministry is the only thing making you useful to the Order. Do you understand?"

"Completely," I said.

"Excellent," Dumbledore said brightly. "I shan't be at the meeting this Saturday nor will any of the other Hogwarts teachers. To be very blunt with you the school is going to hell and I fear without us there it may actually finish its journey there."

It was funny hearing Dumbledore curse.

"Moody will obviously be running the meeting in our absence," Dumbledore said.

Mad-Eye would've ended up running the show anyway.

"Oh and Tonks, I understand you're under quite a bit of stress with your most recent assignment from the ministry but I feel this assignment has put you in a very special position," Dumbledore said.

"And what would that be?" I asked curiously.

"You can take the watch Saturday evening at the Department of Mysteries," he said.

"… Oh yeah. Like you're hanging around the ministry late doing your damn research," Sirius said.

"What a clever cover story," I said. "I'll most certainly be there."

"And I'm certainly glad to hear it," Dumbledore said.

"Oh, Remus you never got to tell me about Hogwarts," Sirius pointed out.

"It was fine. The only trouble I had in class was the first day there when one of the students tried to have a go with Hannah about lycanthropy," Remus chuckled.

"Hannah probably has more knowledge about it than most books in the school," Dumbledore said.

"She may very well know more than I do," Remus said.

"And speaking of it Remus old buddy, old pal, old friend, I could really, really, really use your help with this case because you're more knowledgeable about the subject than I am," I said.

"I'll do anything. Just ask," he said.

"Thanks," I said.

"Well all seems to be well here," Dumbledore said getting to his feet. "I must be going before Dolores pushes those children to the brink of insanity and someone ends up getting stabbed."

"Things aren't really that bad at Hogwarts are they?" I asked.

"No. . . They're much worse."

888

I knocked on the door to Rufus' office.

"Come in," his scratchy voice spoke. I stepped inside, being sure to close the door tightly. "Glad you could make it. Kevin Fitzpatrick will be here in a moment and please, be professional about it."

"Of course," I said.

"He's quite scared. Make sure you gain his trust otherwise-."

"It won't work out and the whole mission is a bust," I said.

"And I can say this until I'm blue in the face, stay professional," he said.

There was a knock on the door.

"Please, come in," Rufus said.

The door opened.

It was no wonder that Rufus had told me to remain professional.

Kevin was gorgeous. His hair was black as coal; his eyes were deep and blue. An amazing smile graced his lips and I knew immediately that my sense of balance would be gone.

When he looked at me his smile immediately faded and he frowned.

"Wotcher, I'm Auror Tonks," I said.

"You're the one protecting me?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

Kevin rolled his eyes. "You're a child."

"I assigned Miss Tonks to you because I thought one of our more youthful aurors would be able to better handle a predator like Greyback," Rufus said.

"How long have you been an auror since I shall refrain from asking a lady her age?" Kevin asked.

"A year and a half almost," I said.

"Almost? You mean she hasn't even qualified two years?" Kevin asked. "I'm sorry minister but I don't think I feel comfortable with her being in charge of my case."

"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about this. All of our aurors have been assigned to cases. I'm afraid Miss Tonks has to run your case. She's a very keen and dedicated witch. One of the brightest and the best we have. Multi-talented," Rufus said.

"Is that a fact?" Kevin scoffed.

"An undeniable one Mister Fitzpatrick," I said.

Kevin sighed. I looked back to Rufus.

"Thank you, Tonks. Be sure to stop back tomorrow," Rufus said.

I nodded and walked out of the room and apparated right to Grimmauld


	17. You're A Jerk

"I mean what a jerk," I said.

"The ministry could've just as easily left him to get attacked," Bill said.

"I get the chance to actually prove my worth and this jerk comes along threatening to screw it all up because he wants someone more experienced. As if I don't have experience or skill or-."

"Tonks, chill out," Bill said. "You know how good you are. Even if this guy doesn't want to see it, you're going to keep him safe and prove him wrong."

"You don't understand. If I don't get his cooperation I'm going to fail this mission and if I fail this mission and let that asshole get hurt, my job is gone," I said.

"Stop pacing. It's a annoying," Sirius said. I plopped down in my seat.

"Sounds like this bloke is a bit arrogant," Remus said.

"I want to punch him in the mouth," I said.

"You're a bit hostile about this, you realize," Sirius said. "Every time you meet an asshole at your job you freak out. How about you stop bitching about them and just ignore them and do your job. You complain and then three days later you come back here and freak out about how your job is in peril. I'd have thought someone as intelligent as you would have seen a pattern by now."

"But this guy-."

"What cannot change must be endured, Nymphadora," Sirius said.

"Tonks," I corrected him.

"You have several character flaws you need to work out," Sirius continued.

"Characters flaws? Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, like your whininess and your bitchiness," Sirius said.

I scoffed.

"That's not really necessary, Sirius," Remus said before I could jump up and strangle Sirius. "Tonks, you do have a tendency to complain and when you do it is usually followed by Rufus threatening to sack you. This could be because the universe hates you, it's a strange coincidence or because you have a bit of an attitude problem. Whatever the cause is-."

"You need to get it in check," Bill said.

Remus ignored Bill. "Just focus on protecting this guy and doing your job. And think of it this way if you actually manage to catch Greyback that's one less death eater we'll have to worry about."

"And Scrimgeour will leave you alone," Bill said.

"And the order will be happy and I'll be happy because maybe you'll tone down the bitching," Sirius said.

". . . You know, Sirius, I wasn't sure before. . . But now I'm pretty sure I hate you," I said.

Sirius frowned at me but then looked to Remus.

"You know, Christmas is right around the bend," Sirius said, changing the subject.

"And I suppose you want something?" I asked.

"If you can get me out of this house I'll be perfectly happy but seeing as how that's not anywhere in the near future I'm perfectly content as is," Sirius said. "I was thinking of what to get Harry."

"You got him a firebolt. I wouldn't ask you for anything ever again," I said.

"I know. But last year I got him a knife," Sirius said.

"A knife? You want him to shank someone?" Bill asked.

"Shank?" Remus asked.

"It's a verb," Sirius said picking up a spoon, "you know to shank." He then went on to "shank" Remus with a spoon.

"Stop that," Remus said.

"Anyway way, the only that he can shank is that Malfoy kid," Sirius said continuing to poke Remus with the spoon.

"Didn't I tell you not too long ago that he was one of Hannah's friends?" Remus asked. He snatched the spoon away from Sirius and smacked him on the head with it.

"Ow. . . He's the spawn of Lucius and Narcissa. He's probably an idiot and he's probably corrupting Hannah," Sirius said.

"Actually he's a very good student and at any rate, Hannah's probably corrupted him," Remus said.

"Again. . . A knife?" Bill asked.

"It unlocks stuff; doors, chest, even chastity belts," Sirius said.

"And you would know that how?" I asked.

"Experience in the field," Sirius said.

Bill and I shuttered. Gross.

"What you getting Hannah?" I asked.

"I'll tell you as soon as you regain a proper grasp of the English language," Sirius said.

"What _are_ you getting, Hannah?" I asked again with a sigh. "And if you say chastity belt I'll hit you. . . Very hard."

Sirius glared at me.

"I'll show you," Sirius said. He took up his wand and pointed it out the kitchen door. "Accio crates."

A moment later two big wooden crates drifted into the room and plopped down on the floor.

"Tah-dah," he said. "Hannah gift."

"What's in them?" Bill asked.

"I have no idea," Sirius said. "But her mom gave it to me to give to her when she turned. . . How old is Hannah?"

"15," Remus said.

"Right, 15, ages before Lily died. Hannah couldn't have been more than a few months old," Sirius said.

"You were supposed to give those to her on her birthday," Remus said.

"Hannah doesn't have to know that," Sirius said. "Which brings me to Harry. All he talks about is Quidditch and that Slytherin girl he's dating. . . What are you getting him Remus?"

"A book," Remus said.

"You get everyone books," Sirius said.

"To make sure that their reading level is above that of a third year's, like yours," Remus said.

"Wow, I don't think I can recall you ever being mean to someone," I said.

"He insults people all the time, just not you," Bill said.

"Yeah. It's cause you're a girl. Every time we try to take a dig at you here comes Remus telling us to leave you alone," Sirius said.

"That's because whenever Snape isn't here to be made fun you decide to take it out on me," I said.

"Most of the time," Sirius said.

"Why do you two poke fun at sweet little me anyway?" I asked.

"Because you're easy and your reactions make me laugh. You always get upset," Sirius said. "But don't worry. As long as you have Remus we won't be able to take really bad digs at you."

"Oh, but you know how Tonks doesn't like feeling like a little kid. She'll probably make Remus leave her alone so she can handle herself," Bill said.

"No, it's cool. I don't like being emotionally distressed," I said. "You don't mind do you Remus?"

"Being your human shield against that idiot and his cohort constantly berating you? Of course I don't mind," he replied.

"Hey. . . I'm the idiot right? I'd rather be the idiot than the sidekick," Sirius said.

Remus sighed. "You are quite obviously the idiot, Sirius."

Sirius nodded in approval as Kingsley walked through the door.

"Hey, Kingsley! I'm the idiot," Sirius cheered.

". . . Good of you to come to that conclusion at last," Kingsley said. "Tonks, there's some Kevin guy from the ministry says he stopped by your flat looking to speak to you."

"Oh, good, he's a jerk and he's stalking me," I said. "Awesome."

"He's looking for you, trying to apologize or something," Kingsley said.

"An apology, really?" I asked.

"It's your business. I don't ask questions," Kingsley said.

"I appreciate that, I suppose," I said. I got out of my seat and walked over to the door.

"I don't think he's leaving until you show up there," Kingsley said.

"I figured as much," I said. "I'll see you boys later."

"Will you be here for dinner tomorrow?" Sirius asked.

"Of course, Sirius," I said.

"Good. If you don't show up I'll be mean to you when Remus isn't around to save you," Sirius said.

I walked out of the house and apparated to my house.

Kevin stood outside my door.

"So it's really you is it?" I asked. He looked up at me and sighed. I unlocked my door and pushed it open and walked inside. "Are you going to come inside or just stand there and look at me funny?"

Kevin walked inside my apartment as I hung my coat on the back of a chair.

"This is where you live?" he asked.

"It's not very grand but it's home," I said. "So to what do I owe the honor of your presence?"

"I'm just here to apologize," Kevin said.

"For being a jerk?" I asked.

"If you'd like to use that term," Kevin said.

"I would, thank you," I said with a smile.

"I suppose I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions about your skills as an auror. They wouldn't have brought you on if you weren't capable. I don't even know you," he said.

"Well I accept your apology," I said.

"I'd like to take you out to dinner tomorrow night as a peace offering and as a way of getting to know you better," Kevin said.

I was silent as I filled my kettle with water and sat it on the stove.

"Are you really going to pass up a free dinner with a very apologetic client?" Kevin asked.

I sighed. "I suppose."

The front door opened and Bill walked in.

"Oh, hello," he said as he hung up his coat.

"Home today and not with Fleur are you?" I asked.

"Indeed," Bill said. He walked over to Kevin. "I'm Bill, Tonks' roommate and you are. . .?"

"Kevin Fitzpatrick. Tonks is helping me from the ministry," Kevin said. "So Tonks I'll meet you here tomorrow at about six then?"

"That'll be fine, then," I said.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," Kevin said. "Nice to meet you Bill."

Bill nodded as Kevin left.

"So what are you doing tomorrow at six instead of going to Grimmaukd like you told Sirius you would?" Bill asked.

"I'm going to go to dinner with Kevin instead," I said. Bill raised an eyebrow at me. "It's a peace offering."

"He's paying isn't he?" Bill asked.

"Well duh," I said.

"Sirius will not be happy," Bill pointed out.

"He will get over it. He's got his best buddy Remus there to cheer him up," I said.

"But you told him-."

"He is a big boy. He will get over it," I said.

Bill sighed. "Good luck with that."


	18. Not Date

"You're blowing me off to go hang with that 'jerk' from work?"

"I'm not blowing you off," I said.

"It sure sounds like you are to be honest," Remus said.

"But you understand don't you Sirius?" I asked as I sat down next to him on the couch. "You heard how I was complaining about him hating me yesterday and now he's offering me a peace treaty."

"Over dinner? It sounds like he's hitting on you," Sirius said.

I scoffed. "He thinks I'm a child. He doesn't want to date me."

"Hey, Bill what did he look like?" Sirius asked.

"What do you mean?" Bill asked.

"Was he hot?" Sirius asked.

"Why would I know that?" Bill asked repulsed.

"Alright then. . . Let me rephrase the question. Would Tonks go for him?" Sirius asked.

"In a heartbeat," Bill said.

"And because of her shallowness it is evident that this guy was not ugly and taking into account that Tonks is not ugly either he was most assuredly hitting on her," Sirius said. "So you're blowing me off for a boy."

"It's not like that-."

"No. . . It's fine. I know where I lie in your priorities," Sirius said. He got up and walked upstairs.

"What a baby," I sighed.

"Tonks. . . You did essentially blow him off for a date," Remus said.

I groaned.

If Remus says it, it must be true.

"I'll make it up to him. . . somehow," I said.

888

It was the end of the day and I was sitting in my office finally pulling together my information about Greyback together.

"Oi, Tonks, heard about your date tonight." I looked over to see Kingsley at the door to my cubicle.

I sighed. "I cannot wait until they put those doors up on these cubicles," I said. "Were you talking to my cousin?"

"Bill actually," Kingsley said.

"It's not a date. I wouldn't date a client," I said.

"Not even one that looks like Kevin?" Kingsley asked. "You're rather shallow you know."

"Now I know you've been talking to him," I said.

"Remus actually," Kingsley said.

"That traitor," I mumbled. "Well it's not a date. It's strictly business."

"Sure it is," Kingsley said rolling his eyes.

"What happened to yesterday when you said you weren't going to get into my business?" I asked. Kingsley laughed. "I'm leaving."

"Of course. You have to get ready for your date," he said.

"Goodbye, Kingsley," I said. I gathered my things and walked out of my cubicle.

"Make sure you put those files back in the file room," Kingsley said.

"Duh! Hope you don't think I'm that irresponsible," I said.

Just as I took another step I fell over scattering all my files.

"Good job, Nymphadora," a voice hissed. I looked up to see Lucius Malfoy.

"It's Tonks," I corrected him as I started to collect the files.

"Bit clumsy this afternoon, aren't you?" Lucius asked.

"Do you need something or are did you just conveniently end up here at the exact moment that I humiliated myself?" I asked.

"I'm here to ask you a few questions regarding Hannah Potter," he said.

"Regarding what about Hannah Potter?" I asked as I started off out of the auror office.

"I've come to understand that you've been in constant contact with Miss Potter," Lucius said.

"What's brought you to that conclusion?" I asked.

"Owl interception. We often see a snowy white owl flying from Hogwarts with letter's addressed to you or Mister Remus Lupin," Lucius said. "You've both become persons of interest. We haven't been able to conclude anything from her letters except that she seems to be a bit ill."

"What?" I asked.

"Memory lapses. Claiming to be posessed by the Dark Lord. It's quite unsettling really and in your responses it seems as though you're encouraging her," Lucius said.

"Make a point, Mister Malfoy," I said as I opened the door to the file room.

"Why are you and Potter in such close contact and who is Snuffles?" Lucius asked.

"Hannah is writing because I told her if she needed anything she could and Snuffles is the name of a pet, a dog-."

"Black," Lucius said.

"Don't be absurd. Sirius Black is not an animagus. If he were he'd be registered," I said. "Snuffles is a dog."

"Then why is she writing letters to a dog?" Lucius asked.

"Because he's a very nice dog," I said.

"Dog's have no personalities," Lucius said.

"That's believable coming from a man who doesn't have any dogs," I said.

I reached the file room and went inside. Lucius still followed.

"Do you need anything else?" I asked.

"Yes in fact, I do. I need to also have a chat with Mister Remus Lupin however he doesn't hang around the ministry too often," Lucius said.

"And for good reason," I said as I started to put the files away.

"I just need him here at the ministry, tomorrow around 11," Lucius said.

I turned round and scowled at him.

"I'll tell him to stop by," I said.

I started out of the file room.

"One more thing, Nymphadora," Lucius said.

"Tonks," I corrected him.

"Risky situation you're getting into, with your choice in men," Lucius said.

I groaned.

"It is not a-."

"Don't make a habit of it, Miss Tonks," Lucius said.

"I am not dating a client, Mister Malfoy," I growled.

As I exited the room Lucius laughed. Against my better judgment I turned around.

"What is so funny?" I asked.

"I didn't mean dating a client," he laughed. "I meant dating a werewolf."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not dating Remus."

I turned away from him.

"No. . . Of course you're not," Lucius said with a smirk.

I paused and looked back at him. He smirked. I turned back and walked away.

888

"Why are you getting ready for your 'not date' here?" Sirius asked.

"Because I needed to talk to Remus," I said.

". . . Why?" Sirius asked.

"Because Malfoy said something curious to me today at work and I thought he might know something about it," I said.

"I might know something about it," Sirius said.

"No offense, but I don't think I want your advice on this," I said.

"But why?" Sirius asked.

"Because you're going to be very nasty about it and say things that are not true but you'll think they're true because as we established yesterday, you're an idiot," I said.

"And you wonder why I make fun of you," Sirius said.

I took my bag and walked upstairs. I went to the library and leaned inside. As expected he was sitting inside reading.

"Hey you," I said. He looked over at me. I smiled. "You have time to talk to a friend?"

"I always have time for you," he said.

I dropped my bag in the door way and went to sit next to him.

"For starters you have a meeting with Lucius Malfoy tomorrow at 11 in the morning at the ministry," I said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because someone's owls have been getting intercepted and they can't understand a damn thing that they're saying," I said.

Remus nodded. "Hannah."

"Yeah. She's very good at using code. She can be completely obvious and only people she's told will know exactly what she means," Tonks said. "All the same we have to tell her at Christmas that her owls are being checked and that she has to be more careful about what she puts in a letter."

"It's a good thing she's smart," Remus said.

"Indeed, but that's only part of the reason I needed to talk to you," I said. "Before I brought him up had you ever heard of Kevin Fitzpatrick?"

"Only that he worked as a representative of the British Ministry in the United States," he said.

"You sure that's all?" I asked. He nodded.

"Why?"

"It's just that Malfoy said something. He, like everyone else has, was talking about my meeting with Kevin tonight," I said.

"You mean the date," Remus chuckled.

"I'd expect you to be a bit more mature about it than Sirius," I said.

"Sorry. Continue," he said.

"Well anyway before I could even tell him that it isn't a date, because it's not, he said 'don't make a habit of it.' And I'm all like I'm not dating a client, don't be absurd. And then he laughed and said he wasn't talking about dating clients he was. . . He was talking about me dating werewolves. So naturally I said I wasn't dating you because I was talking about you two seconds before but he goes and says 'of course you're not' and I get the feeling he wasn't being sarcastic. I honestly don't think he was talking about you."

Remus sat quietly absorbing all of this.

"Then who was he talking about?" Remus asked.

"I have no idea. I mean the only logical person he could be talking about would be Kevin but he's not a werewolf," I said. "I've checked his background dozens of times and it'd be pretty counterproductive to protect him from Greyback if he was one already."

"Which makes it not logical at all," Remus said.

". . . Could he be talking about Greyback?" I asked.

"I don't know. Do you plan on dating him?" Remus asked.

"No," I said. I sighed. "None of this makes any sense."

"Don't stress yourself out about it. I bet he's just trying to shake you up is all," Remus said.

"But why? I understand that everyone is trying to get me fired but since I have done my job brilliantly no one can, but I know Malfoy doesn't care whether or not I get fired. I'd venture to say he actually enjoys harassing me and. . ." I paused.

"You okay?" Remus asked.

"I just had a crazy thought," I chuckled. "What if Fudge and Scrimgeour aren't behind this case? What if it's Malfoy?"

"How does that make sense?" Remus asked.

"Think about it. He knows I'm in the Order and he knows that I know he's a death eater and since Greyback works for Voldemort too he probably knows I'm in the Order as well. . ."

"You are making about as much sense as Sirius does when he's had too much cough syrup," Remus said.

"What if Malfoy orchestrated this whole thing to get rid of me, to get a reaction out of Dumbledore and the rest of the Order?" I asked.

"It's certainly possible but-."

"Unlikely. I know but what if? I'm an auror my mind is trained to investigate every possibility I can think of until I can debunk it," I said.

"You're a better thinker than I pegged you to be," Remus said.

"I get that a lot," I said with a smile. "In the meantime what should I do?"

"If I were you, I'd trust my instincts. They don't seem to lead you wrong," Remus said.

"I hope you're right," I said. "I'm going to actually do what Moody tells me for once and do some digging."

"You do realize that puts you exceptionally close to death eaters right?" Remus asked.

"Of course I do but that's what they pay me for," I said.

"That doesn't make it safe," Remus said.

"Ah, so I see now. After all that talk about me knowing what I'm capable of you-."

"That's not it!" Remus cut me off. "Even if you are perfectly capable of handling yourself, which I'm sure you are, there will always be that part of me that is naturally concerned for your safety."

"So you're just concerned for me?" I asked. He nodded. "But you still think I'm capable of handling this?"

"Indeed," he said.

"I half don't believe that you think I can handle this," I said. "But lucky for you the other half me of does believe you and is deeply touched that you care so much and that you believe in me."

"I know which half of your brain I'm favoring right now," Remus chuckled.

"I think I'll be leaning that way as well," I said. "It's about time for me to go."

"On your 'not' date," Remus said.

"Yes. 'Not Date,'" I replied. "I'll see you later."


	19. Deplorable Acts

_[A/N: thelosttwin requested that I update this story so. . . This is for her.]_

I had planned on staying home after dinner with Kevin but I decided to go back to Grimmauld.

I tripped over the umbrella stand, as I so often did, alerting them to my presence. But out of character I climbed to my feet, not feeling angry at all.

Sirius walked into the hall as I put myself together.

He closed the curtains to shut up his mother and then turned to me.

"No profanity? Cursing the umbrella stand for its existence? No screaming at the portrait of my mum? Are you really Nymphadora?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, Sirius," I said shaking my head, "if you call me Nymphadora again I'll be forced to slay you."

"Oh, so it is you. Come in. Everyone's just left after dinner. Molly made pot roast. I know how much you like it so we saved you some," Sirius said.

"Thanks," I said.

We walked into the kitchen where Bill and Remus sat chatting.

"Look who I found," Sirius announced.

Bill and Remus looked over at me.

"Well, Nymphadora. Didn't expect to be seeing you here tonight," Bill said.

"Neither did I," I replied. "But I decided, hell it's only nine o'clock. Why not just come visit my favorite people and the cousin I'm obligated to be around."

"Just because you spent all evening with a complete jackass doesn't mean you have to take it out on me," Sirius said.

"But he's not a jackass. I perceived him completely wrong," I said sitting down. "He's actually quite the gentleman."

"Oh, you're going to tell us about him now, aren't you?" Sirius groaned. "Well go on. Get it over with."

"I admit, he was bit infuriating at first but then he apologized to me, and then he was so polite tonight. He opened doors for me, he pulled out my chair for me and helped me put my cloak on," I explained.

"Chivalry? What a suck up," Sirius said dismissively.

"He was being a gentleman, something you would obviously know nothing about," I said.

"How old is this bloke anyway?" Sirius asked.

"Year older than you actually," I said. "Which is why is probably why he flipped out about me watching him. But unlike you two he's actually treated me like the adult that I am."

"I don't recall ever treating you like a child," Remus said.

"Of course you don't. You just fuss over me like I am," I said.

Remus thought for a moment and then shrugged off my comment.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you fancied this fellow," Sirius said.

I said nothing but shrugged his comment off.

"That's not a no," Bill said.

"But it's not a yes either," Remus pointed out.

"Tonks has got a boy friend," Sirius teased.

"I don't have time for your tomfoolery," I said. "I'm going to bed."

888

"So he is your boyfriend?" Sirius asked.

"No," I said.

"Then why are you going over to his house?" Bill asked.

"Because the full moon is tonight and I have to work," I said.

"But you've done a splendid job at hiding him so you're just going to spend the night over the house of a guy who has mutual feelings for you?" Sirius asked.

"That doesn't even factor into the equation," I said. "I am going to babysit essentially and then I'm going to go home. That's all there is to it."

"Yeah, and I'm sure you'll _celebrate_ later when you're officially off the case," Sirius said with a wink.

"You actually think I'll do something deplorable?" I asked.

"Well you and I are related and I'd _definitely _do something that deplorable," he replied.

I scoffed. "Piss off."

Moody and Remus walked into the kitchen.

"Neither of you think I'll do anything deplorable on my mission, do you?" I asked.

". . . You don't want me to answer that, Tonks," Moody said.

My jaw dropped. "You can't be serious? You have to think better of me than that!"

"Like I said, we are related," Sirius said.

"I'm with you on this one, Sirius," Bill said.

"You're supposed to be my best friend!" I said.

"Exactly. Who knows you better than I do? No one," Bill said casually.

I looked to Remus.

"Come on, Remus. You don't think that I'll be doing anything that I shouldn't be doing?" I asked.

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter either way. It's none of my business what you do with your free time."

"That's no answer to my question," I protested.

"I didn't promise an answer to the question," Remus said.

"Answer the question!" I demanded.

"I'd answer her-her hair is turning red," Sirius said.

Remus sat silent for a moment. "No. I don't think so. You generally know what you're doing. Not to mention the fact I'm concerned about your actual mission rather than what you're doing before it."

Everyone was silent.

"Look, I'll be fine you guys. Trust me. I'm not a little kid you know," I said. "You of all people should know what I'm capable of Alastor. You trained me after all."

A slight smile came across his face.

"It's just that for this to be your first real assignment, it seems a bit out of your league. I reckon they'd hesitate to send someone like Kingsley on something like this," Moody explained.

"Well it was bound to happen eventually," I said.

"But did it have to be so dangerous?" Sirius asked.

"I'm an auror. Danger is a part of my job," I said.

Sirius sighed. "Be careful and remember, no glove no love."

I rolled my eyes. "Bye."

I walked out of the kitchen and to the front door.

"Hey, wait a second."

I turned and Remus was walking up to me holding my bag.

"Thanks. I'd lose my head if it weren't attached," I said.

I took the bag from him.

"Be safe," he said.

"I will. . . Try," I said. "You get some rest, yeah?"

"You're going to be against Fenrir Greyback in a few hours. Sounds like you're the one who'll be needing some rest then," he said.

"Let's both agree to get some rest then," I said. Remus nodded in agreement. I reached up and hugged him.

"Good luck," he said.

"Thanks."

I released him and suddenly I was very scared. It was as if he'd sucked out all of the courage right out of me.

"Well. . . Goodbye," I said.

888

I knocked on the door to Kevin's house.

He opened and the door and smiled at me.

"Hello, my dear, Dora," he said.

"That's Auror Tonks, Mister Fitzpatrick," I said.

Kevin grabbed my bag and tossed it inside and then pulled me inside. He slammed the door, pinned me against it and kissed me.

"I missed you, you know," he said as he pushed my cloak off.

"Hey, you, calm it down," I said gently pushing him away.

"Alright I get it. I'll keep my hands to myself. . . For now," he said.

"Where should I be putting my bag?" I asked.

"In my room. I'm sure you know where that is, though you're probably better acquainted with my bed than anything else in this house," he said.

My face flushed pink as I looked down at my feet. "Now, Kevin, right now is not the appropriate time to bring that up."

"Of course not. You'd much rather think about what happened in your flat," he said.

My face was red now and an embarrassed smile had also crossed my face.

"If I die because of my inability to focus you'll have to worry about more than just Greyback," I said.

"Oh really? Who'll be coming to get me then?" he asked.

_Another werewolf, my cousin the alleged murderer, and more auror's than you can shake a stick at. Also, the Weasleys._

"My family and friends," I said. "They were worried about me and this mission you know?"

"Why is that?" he asked.

"They're under the impression that maybe I can't handle myself," I said. "If I'm protecting you then who's protecting me?"

"I wouldn't think too hard on it," Kevin said. He kissed my cheek. "You know I care for you more than I ought to."

"I know the feeling," I replied. I leaned up and kissed him again. "I'm going to go put my bag away."


	20. Career Case

It was nearly nightfall now. The sky was pink outside and I wondered when the moon would make an appearance. I was on edge now, I knew Greyback would be showing up any moment.

Kevin was sitting on the couch looking pale and ill.

"Are you scared?" I asked.

"No. . . Why?" he asked.

"You look a bit peaky," I replied. "Do you need a drink of water or something?"

"No, I'm fine," he replied. "Your concern is appreciated."

I was a bit scared admittedly. Now that this was actually happening I couldn't back out. A million thoughts raced through my head about what would happen tonight.

"Mind if I ask you something?" I piped up as the sun started going down.

"Of course," he said.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"What?" he asked.

"You asked that the ministry protect you at your home when you knew that Greyback was coming here. It would've been easier to put you somewhere else when he showed up. Why didn't you do that?" I asked.

"Because I felt it would be more productive if the auror assigned to my case put him away instead of simply keeping me hidden from him," Kevin said.

"Yes, but I was hardly qualified to do the job, remember? You made a whole fuss about it the day you met me. You could've changed your mind right then couldn't you have?" I asked.

"I don't know, Nymphadora. Slipped my mind I suppose," he said.

"I know you've thought of this already, Kevin," I said. "Why did you want protection here even if you knew your chances of being maimed and possibly killed increased even with me here?"

Kevin smirked and rose to his feet and started to walk toward me. I backed away slowly. Why was he suddenly scaring me?

"I suppose you'd find out sooner or later. . . Or maybe it would all happen too quickly for you to even figure out," Kevin said.

"What are you going on about?" I asked.

"If the Dark Lord wants the Order of the Phoenix gone, his followers will gladly oblige," he said.

"You. . . You're a death eater?" I asked.

"Not quite yet," he said. "But Voldemort needed us to make an example, to show the Order exactly what they're dealing with this time. And who better to make an example of than their favorite, the youngest, Nymphadora Tonks."

I reached for my wand, but it wasn't there

Kevin held it up and dangled it in front of my face and smirked. "There'll be no running away. You see, I've got your wand and the whole of the property has been charmed so you can't disapparate."

I turned to at least try and escape out the back door, but it opened. And there stood Fenrir Greyback. I'd totally forgotten he was coming. This is exactly why Moody was always stressing constant vigilance. He was going to scold me about this if I got out of it alive.

"Shit," I said.

"You must be Auror Tonks, one of Dumbledore's little toadies," he said.

"I am not a toady. You on the other hand have been working for Voldemort since you could crawl and he still hasn't made you a death eater. _Peter Pettigrew_ is a death eater. How must that feel, to have less authority than that skeevy, little rat," I scoffed.

Greyback growled at me and then looked to Kevin. "Bring her."

A smirk on his face, Kevin reached up and grabbed me.

"Let go of me!" I shouted. I struggled to break free of him but it was moot. I may've been a good witch but I had no body strength what so ever. Another thing I was going to do if I got out of this was start exercising.

He dragged me outside and tossed me to the ground

_"Incarcerous,"_ Kevin said.

I was bound with rope all over.

"Oh, look, it's nearly dark now, Nymphadora. The moon will be out very soon," Greyback promised. "And then it will be double the fun."

"What?" I asked.

"Double the fun, Nymphadora. I'd give you that maybe you'd be able to get away from me in time to save your life but can you really handle two werewolves?" he asked.

I looked over at Kevin, horrified.

"Should've done your research," Greyback said.

"Oh, come now Fenrir. She did the best. After all, it's not on any records," Kevin laughed.

"Prepare, Nymphadora," Kevin said looking towards the sky.

The moon was high in the sky and before I knew it they were changing.

I laid there on the ground, completely helpless as their bodies began to grow and contort and change.

I had to get away, I just had to.

After all the fighting and arguing and complaining I had to put up with to convince everyone to let me take this assignment I was going to die, just like they were afraid I would.

Then I noticed something.

As Kevin changed into this monstrous creature his clothes shredded and fell to the ground.

If I could just get to his pants and get my wand I'd be able to escape.

I wiggled across the ground and each time I moved the ropes around me became tighter and tighter. I knew if I didn't get my wand soon I was going to suffocate before either of them had a chance to kill me.

Just as the ropes got as tight as I knew they could get, I couldn't breathe and going any further was impossible. I reached his pants. With the only hand I had loose I searched around frantically for it.

Huzzah!

I wasn't going to die, not today.

I flicked it as best I could and the ropes vanished.

I inhaled sharply as my lungs filled with air again and the pressure on my body was lifted.

It took me only a second to regain my composure before I could get up and run away.

But then something grabbed my leg. I fell to the ground. I turned and looked. A werewolf, at this point I didn't really care who was who, had grabbed me. He raised his arm and swung at me, cutting me right across my chest. It was like someone dragging knives over me.

I kicked his hand away and got up. I started to run. I knew I wasn't fast enough to outrun a werewolf, let alone two, but I knew that if I could get off the property I would be safe.

One jumped in front of me. It was much larger than the one that had swung at me. I knew for a fact now that this was Greyback.

Now I was between a rock and a hard place.

I did the only thing I could think of at the time.

"Stupefy!" I shouted.

It threw Greyback away from me Kevin pounced on me from behind.

Now my only thought was to not get bitten. If I get the hell beat out of me I'd recover but there was no cure for lycanthropy and even if I had no other choice I'd be damned if this loser turned me.

As I tried to crawl away he was going to town on my back. Each time he hit me his claws would sink in deeper and deeper and I felt pain like I'd never felt before. I could feel the blood pouring out my body and realized that I now had even more problems.

I finally managed to turn over and I got cut right across my face.

Kevin then grabbed my arm and tossed me high into air I flew back through a tree, breaking branches as I went. I hit a branch to heavy for me to break and it slammed against my body like a brick wall. Having stopped moving I fell down through the tree and hit the hard ground.

I was starting to see spots now, my body desperately wanted to faint but I had to hang in there. If I could get to the Order and warn Kingsley then I'd be okay. I wasn't far away from the property line now.

I tried to get to my feet but I was too weak. So I crawled as fast as I could to get away from the tree.

Kevin was coming at me and now so was Greyback.

_Come on, think quickly, Tonks. Your life is at stake here._

They both stood in front of me, creeping ever so slowly closer. I looked around. Nothing but that damn tree and an empty field.

I was smart enough to figure this out, I could do this. I wouldn't be in this situation if I couldn't.

_If you don't make it you won't be able to see anyone ever again. Not Bill, no Sirius, not even Remus and they'd all be kicking themselves for not stopping me._

I looked over at the tree again and then got a clever idea that I prayed would work.

I pointed my wand at the trunk of the tree.

_"Confringo!"_ the bottom of the tree came toppling down right on top of Kevin and Greyback. "_Petrificus totalus."_

Beneath the tree the two stopped twitching and remained completely still.

_I cannot believe that actually worked._

I rolled over and tried remain conscious. I was still bleeding, badly injured but I'd done it. I had apprehended Fenrir Greyback _and_ Kevin who turned out to be evil _and_ I was alive.

That thought in mind, I blacked out.

888

When I opened my eyes Kingsley was standing over me.

"Kingsley?" I asked.

"Well color me impressed," he said.

I looked around and realized I wasn't on the ground anymore. I was lying in a bed wrapped in bandages.

"St. Mungo's?" I asked.

"Yep," Kingsley said. "The office got a bit freaked out when you didn't show up this morning so I went to find you. And I found you half dead and two guys pinned under a tree that had apparently been blown up."

"I had to improvise," I said. "But I told you I could handle it."

"I guess so, but if nearly getting killed is your way of 'handling it', I'd find a different method if I were you," he said. I chuckled.

"Did you tell everyone else how much of a bad ass I am?" I asked.

"Somehow they only heard me say that you were half-dead in the hospital and they got all crazy and loud and didn't hear me mention that you actually succeeded. Your cousin was terrified when I told him the state you were in," Kingsley said. "Had Remus in a bit of a panic as well."

"He was worried about me after the night he had?" I asked.

"Well, if I held a mirror up to you and you compared it to how I look now I think we could be pretty sure that you had a worse night."

I looked up and standing in the frame of the door was Remus. I smiled.

"Well hello, Remus," I said.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked.

"I think so," I said.

"I'm going to go back down to the ministry and get Dawlish. I believe he's got some paper work to be filling out while you're incapacitated," Kingsley said.

I smirked. To see Dawlish suffer, or at least know that he was, made me happy.

"Make sure he keeps his hand writing neat. I'm very particular about it," I said.

Kingsley nodded and walked out of the room. Remus took his place in a chair next to my bed.

"Are you here to keep me company?" I asked.

"To keep an eye on you actually. You do realize that they're going to try to kill you now?" Remus asked.

"I think they already did try, I mean look at me Remus," I pointed out.

"I know but you've managed to make a fool of their master so now he's going to want you out of the picture," Remus said. "You're like, public enemy number five now."

"You know he planned it out brilliantly. I never would've thought Kevin to be working for him. I was just underestimated," I said. "And I'm sure Moody will be very glad to know that I maintained constant vigilance even when I was nearly unconscious."

"He's very proud of you," Remus said.

"Course he is. He trained me. He'd better be proud," I said.

"You made the front page of The Prophet by the way," he said picked up the paper from beside me bed, "'Rookie Auror, Nymphadora Tonks, single handedly apprehends the most dangerous werewolf of the age and his partner.'"

"Career making case, Rufus said," I said. "And I believe my career has been made."

Remus chuckled. "I'm proud of you too."

"Awe, come on now, you don't mean that," I said.

"I mean, I'd be more proud of you if I didn't have to come visit you as St. Mungo's because you were nearly killed," he said. I smiled. "I'm still proud of you. And more than that I'm. . . Really, very happy you're okay."

I could feel myself blushing. "Thank you."

"Oh, yes," he said reaching in his pocket. He pulled out Yuna. I laughed. "You're gonna be here a few days. We're not going to be able to come and see you every day so you can use it as a proxy for me."

"Awe. . . Thank you, and I really mean it," I said. "You know. . . Last night. . . I really thought I was going to die. I was trapped, I didn't have a wand, I couldn't apparate. . . I was so scared. . . And not of dying. . . Of not getting to see any of you again."

Remus sat back in his chair, silent, taking in what I'd just said. "Well. . . Now that I've lived it, I wouldn't be able to look at the world the same way without you either. Every time I'd see the color pink or the umbrella stand, I'd probably dissolve into tears."

"You'd dissolve into tears over me?" I asked. He nodded. "Well let's both promise we won't kick the bucket until we're positive we're supposed to."

Remus nodded. "Sounds like a plan."


	21. Moonlight Sonata

I peeked through the kitchen door, quiet for once.

Sirius and Remus were playing chess as always.

Grinning widely, I pushed the door open and fell down in a grand attempt to make a surprise entrance.

"Hi!" I said enthusiastically from the floor. "I'm out of the hospital!"

"And clearly searching for a way to get back," Remus said helping me to my feet. "Are you hell bent on hurting yourself?"

"Well I didn't hurt myself," I said. I looked over and saw Sirius with a smirk on his face. "What's the smirk about, Cousin?"

"What did I tell you?" he asked, the smirk suddenly gone from his face. "'It's too dangerous' I said, 'you could get hurt' I said. But _no_, nobody wants to listen to Sirius. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Well, half the time you don't actually know," Remus pointed out.

"Go to hell, Moony," Sirius said frowning at him.

"Look, Sirius, I'm sorry, but at least I accomplished my mission and I'm not dead and no lasting damage has been done. I live to not take you advice another day," I said.

He smiled. "I'm really happy you're okay," he said. "Now you can help us prepare for Christmas!"

"Sure, I'll help you throw up a few decorations," I said.

Sirius laughed. "A few? Who are you? Scrooge?"

"When we were 15 we came over here for Christmas. He made us hike a mile to his house carrying a half dead, live Christmas tree," Remus said. "He doesn't joke about Christmas."

"Mistletoe and holly! Chestnut roasting on an open fire! Santa Claus! I go all out," he said. "So are you going to help?" he asked.

I sighed. "Do I really have a choice?"

"Not really," Sirius replied. "So I need you to pick some stuff up for the house. I reckon any decorations here are probably too old and rotted to be of any use."

"I suppose. No one's lived here in ages," I said.

"And then when the children arrive they'll be made to be my Christmas slaves," Sirius said.

888

The next few weeks were spent buying Christmas decorations and re-cleaning the entire house preparing for Christmas and the children's arrival.

"Just think, two more days and all the children will be here again," Sirius said.

"It'll be pretty nice to see them all again," I said.

"What did you get Hannah?" Sirius asked.

"A music box," I replied.

"Why did you get her a music box of all things?" Sirius asked.

"Well I got one for Christmas when I was a little girl from my mum and I think every girl should have one so, I got her one," I said.

"It doesn't have a ballerina spinning in the middle does it?" Sirius asked, leering at me.

"No. It's like a jewelry box that plays music," I said.

"What kind of music?" Remus asked.

"Probably the Weird Sisters. That way every time Hannah goes to put on an earring she can also 'Do the Hippogriff'," Sirius teased.

"First off, it's Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven and b, I can change the music if she doesn't like it," I said.

"First and b? You're a regular Albus Einstein," Sirius said.

"It's Albert Einstein. If you're going to insult me at least don't embarrass yourself," I said. "Anyway, Hannah said it was her favorite piece of classical music."

"How could you possibly know what 15-year-old girl's favorite piece of classical music is?" Sirius asked.

"I asked her. You see, asking questions is how most people generally obtain information," I said.

"Weird girl. Who on Earth has a favorite piece of classical music?" Sirius went on. "I bet Remus does."

"I don't as a matter of fact," Remus replied.

"Yes! Because it never occurs to _anyone_ to think about that—except for you and Hannah apparently," Sirius said.

I yawned. I didn't have the strength to put up with his nonsense anymore tonight. "I'd better go to bed. I'm so tired from cleaning this place."

"Well you wouldn't be so tired if you weren't completely useless with cleaning spells," he said.

"Well you're completely useless all together, so I've still got one up on you," I said.

"You are quick with the comebacks, Nymphadora," Sirius said.

"That's Tonks to you, Tumbles," I said.

Sirius gasped, horrified that I knew this name. "Who told you about that?"

"That is a secret," I said.

Remus had told me about the nickname. He wouldn't tell my why the children at Hogwarts used to call him that, only that it was humiliating.

"Hmm, you win tonight, but tomorrow I shall have my revenge," he said.

I got up from the table, saying goodnight to my cohorts as I went.

I only managed to sleep a few hours before there was a loud banging on my door.

"Whozit?" I asked.

The opened and Sirius ran in.

"Get up, now," he said in a panic.

"Why? What's happened?" I asked.

"Arthur was attacked at the ministry," Sirius asked.

"What?" I asked, very suddenly awake.

"Arthur was attacked at the ministry," he said.

"When?" I asked.

"Just now apparently. Harry and the Weasley children are on their way now," he said.

"And Arthur?" I asked.

"Molly and Kingsley are taking him to Saint Mungo's as we speak," he said.

"But is he alright?" I asked.

Sirius didn't answer me. "Moody's bringing the children."

And with that he left.

I was horror stricken. What if something was really wrong with Arthur and he didn't recover. . . What if he didn't make it all? I'd known him since I'd started Hogwarts, since I was a little girl. . . The thought of losing him was terrifying.

I jumped out of bed and slipped on my house shoes. I could hear the children piling in downstairs.

I walked downstairs and into the kitchen. The twins, Ron, Ginny, and Harry all sat there, quiet as a mouse, not speaking a word to one another, looks of absolute concern covered their faces.

Asking if they were okay would be pointless and insensitive. So instead we all just stood in the kitchen quietly, waiting on news about Arthur.

The children were struggling to stay awake as the hour got later and later. Sirius, Remus and I all exchanged glances amidst the silence.

Finally at nearly three in the morning, Kingsley came in. The children looked on at him eagerly, waiting to hear about Arthur.

"He's pretty messed up but he's gonna make a full recovery," he said.

We all breathed a sigh of relief.

"We'll take you guys to see him tomorrow morning. Go on to bed now," Remus said.

The children all got up and walked upstairs to bed. I closed the kitchen door quietly. And turned round to Kingsley.

"So maybe I was asleep when all of this was explained but, what happened?" I asked.

"Voldemort's snake attacked him in the department of mysteries while he was on patrol," Kingsley explained.

"How could we have found that out? None of us were there," I said.

"Harry," Sirius said. "He had a 'dream' or a rather a nightmare, said that he saw Arthur getting attacked by Voldemort's snake."

"And it just turned out to be true?" I asked. Remus nodded.

"The theory is that he could see what Voldemort was seeing," he said. "Of course Voldemort is still completely unaware of his connection with Harry, so while he's using Hannah, he's unintentionally helping us."

"When he's being careless?" I asked.

Sirius nodded. "Now it's just another reason for him to freak out on top of his sister being possessed."

"You mean it's another reason for you to freak out?" Kingsley asked.

Sirius sighed. "This is getting complicated."

"And it wasn't before?" Remus asked.

"Well of course it was before. Don't be absurd," Sirius replied. "I'm just saying, it's going to get harder and harder to keep things from them now. They were already suspicious that we knew things before. Now they'll be trying to get information out of us every day. Not to mention we'll have to tell them a million times that there's nothing wrong with them and have absolutely nothing to back it up."

"They trust you, Sirius, more than anyone else in the world," Kingsley said. "Trust yourself and they'll trust you."

I nodded in agreement. "I'm going to send and owl to Hannah and Hermione to let them know that they'll be leaving tomorrow instead of Sunday," Kingsley said. "You three try to get some rest."

He went out the door leaving us in silence in the kitchen.

"Harry will be fine," Sirius told himself. "But Hannah likes to panic, apparently."

"She's going to flip out when she discovers what's happened," Remus said.

"And she'll be more concerned for Harry than Arthur," I said.

"Well she knows Arthur will be okay. She and Harry walking a very thin line as far as their mental stability goes and they're both very aware of it in each other," Sirius said.

What a tragic start this was to a seemingly normal Christmas break.


	22. Liar, Liar

The next afternoon I was cleaning up the dishes.

We'd gone to visit Arthur earlier in the day and we'd unfortunately had a conversation we shouldn't have had around a group of eavesdropping children.

Long story short, Harry now thought he was a safety hazard to the order considering he was connected to Voldemort's brain. It was partially true of course—his connection was dangerous but so far it had only helped us. The truth of the matter was that the dangerous one was Hannah who, unbeknownst to her, was able to get up and walk around and act for Voldemort.

Harry had been in his room ever since. Because Sirius was unsuccessful in getting him out he was he was also locked away upstairs.

And they say girls could be sensitive.

The kitchen door opened as I went along with the dishes.

"Hey," Remus said with a smile. "You look like you could use some company."

"Only if that company is cleaning up as well. You know Molly will have our asses if we don't get this place picked up by the time she gets back from the hospital," I said. Remus picked up the broom. "Thank you."

"No problem," he said.

"Could you turn on my radio for me or do you not know how it works?" I asked.

"I know perfectly well how a radio works," he said as he turned it on.

As we went to our respective chores _Barbie Girl_, began to play.

"Is it wrong that I love this song?" I asked.

"People say they hate it they know all the words and sing along with it anyway," Remus said.

"Does that mean that Remus Lupin knows all the words to Barbie Girl, despite the fact that he's so manly he doesn't cry during Titanic? I don't believe it," I said. "I guess you'll have to prove it."

Remus scoffed.

"Oh, come on, you know you wanna," I said. He sighed. "I'm a Barbie Girl in a barbie world! Life in plastic! It's Fantastic. You can brush my hair! Undress me Anywhere! Imagination! Life is your creation!" I sang.

"Come on Barbie let's go party!" Remus joined in.

"Ah-ah-ah yeah," I laughed.

"Come on Barbie let's go party."

"Ooh-ooh-ooh. Ooh-ooh-ooh."

Suddenly the radio clicked off. We both turned to see Hermione and Hannah, staring at us, completely astounded.

"What. . . The heck. . . Was that?" Hannah asked.

Remus and I exchanged glances. We were completely red in the face.

"You were singing a song about Barbie being a crack-whore," Hermione said. "You should be ashamed of yourselves."

"Believe me, I am," Remus said continuing to sweep the floor.

I looked over at Hannah and smiled. She shook her head.

"Anyway" she began, "what's been going on?"

"Harry is in a huff about something they eaves dropped on at the hospital," I said.

"What?" Hannah asked.

"Oh, Hermione, could you go bring that bag of ice up to Ginny. We ended up in a pile up earlier. Her ankle's as huge as a watermelon," I said, merely a diversion to get her out of the room.

Hermione grabbed the bag of ice from the table and walked out of the kitchen.

"So, what about Harry?" Hannah asked.

"He heard Moody say something that involved you but they thought that he meant Harry because he was the one there at the time," I said. Hannah looked over at Remus, completely bewildered.

"Perhaps _you_ could tell me in English," Hannah said.

Remus sighed.

"Sit. You might as well know. No point in keeping secrets from you," he said.

Hannah sat down and stared at us, wondering why we were being so serious.

"No one is judging you Hannah because, really, it isn't your fault. You don't mean to do what you do," I said.

"But. . . We do suspect that you are the weapon that Voldemort is planning on using to destroy us. He's been able to control you and make you do things. Moody made the mistake of bringing this up around the twins and their extendable ears at the hospital where there aren't impediment charms on the doors," Remus explained.

"He also only said your last names which lead everyone to believe he was talking about Harry. So because they think Harry's this weapon of wizardry domination, he locked himself in his room for their own safety. Nobody cares though. I mean, we're your family. Nothing would make us turn our backs on you," I promised.

"Have you explained any of this at all to Harry?" she asked simply. She was taking all of this rather well.

"You know Harry. He never gave us the chance. After you knock on his door he sends you away. The person that came closest was Sirius but Harry threw him out after he started singing deck the halls," I said.

"But they may have just been because Sirius is a terrible singer," Remus suggested.

"You're one to talk," Hannah said. Remus rolled his eyes. "So what you're saying is that I'm supposed to be Voldemort's secret weapon but they mistook me for Harry so now Harry's shut himself off from the rest of the world?"

"That about sums it all up," Remus said.

Then I got a brilliant idea.

"Hey! Maybe Harry will listen to you! You are his little sister you know," I said.

"Five minutes. There were five minutes between the time he was born and the time I was born. You can't even factor older or younger into that," Hannah complained.

"You can still tell him to stop acting like a git," I said.

"He's not acting like a git," Remus said.

"Yes he is," I said.

"He's trying to be all noble because he's scared," Hannah said.

"Then tell him to stop being scared," I said. I waved my wand at her and the chair scooted out from under her making Hannah fall to the floor.

"Ow!" she exclaimed.

"Damn. I don't know where my head is today," I said.

"I wonder where it's at all of the time and then I remember, you're actually blonde," Remus said.

"Can you prove it?" I asked.

". . . No," Remus said.

"Ha ha!" I said.

"You're a loser Tonks," Remus said.

"And you're a dumbass," Tonks said.

"And you're-."

"A barbie girl. In a barbie world," Hannah said. Embarrassed, again, we both went silent immediately. "Wow that works on Snape too, but it's a different song."

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked curiously.

"Oh nothing," she giggled as she walked out of the room.

"She's so odd," I said.

"She always has been," Remus said.

888

Hannah did successfully manage to get her brother out of his room and to interact with the rest of us, but that didn't mean we were done with Potter drama.

As soon as Harry was out of his bad mood, Hannah fell into one and it persisted all the way through to Christmas Eve dinner, and during that dinner we learned a lot.

We learned that Fred, George and Harry had been kicked off the Quidditch team and that Hannah, Ginny and Hermione's ex-boyfriend replaced them.

We learned that Ron and Hermione liked each other and that they were both idiots.

We learned that Ginny was dating a boy.

That Hannah had once upon a time had a crush on Lupin.

We learned that they'd played truth or dare a lot and that during these games they did everything from have Harry sing "I'm Too Sexy" while stripping to Hannah and Ginny making out.

But the real icing on the cake of truths that were revealed was about Hannah. All of her secrecy, her acting suspicious all came out thanks to her spiteful brother.

"Everyone's had it rough these last few weeks," Hannah said.

"I'll say," Harry replied.

"What's happened to you?" Sirius asked.

Harry sighed. "Well, Kristen broke up with me and that sucked."

"Ever seen Harry mope around? Not a pretty sight," Hannah said. "But he perked up during this week."

"Well that because he. . ." Hermione trailed off and then cleared her throat. "Pass the salt please."

"Because he what? What'd you do?" Hermione asked.

Harry sighed. "Well. . . I'm dating Cho now?"

"You're joking right?" Hannah asked. Whoever this Cho girl was Hannah clearly wasn't a fan of hers.

". . . Nope," he replied.

"So, Kristen breaks up with you for liking Cho and you prove her right by dating her? Are you serious?" Hannah asked.

"Yes, I'm serious," he said.

"Hell hath no fury like a Slytherin woman scorned, Harry. Mark my words. This is totally going to come back and bite you," Hannah said. "When did you even have time to. . . At the DA meeting?"

"Yes, why?" he asked.

"So, not only did you start dating Cho but you started dating her while she was upset and crying over Cedric. You took advantage of a dead boy's girlfriend and you totally lied to me," Hannah said.

I shook my head. It was times like this I was glad I was an only child.

"I lie to everyone. What makes you so special?" he asked.

"I am your sister," Hannah said, as if it really made a difference

"Well that just makes you more gullible," he said. I rolled my eyes at this. "And you've got room to talk about lying when you've. . ."

Harry paused and Hannah gave him the greatest death glare I had ever seen. If the Avada Kedavra had a face it probably looked like the one Hannah was sporting now.

"Lying about what?" Sirius asked.

Hannah muttered something to Harry and he mumbled something back to her in response. Clearly Hannah _had_ been keeping a secret that she hadn't intended to tell anyone outside of school.

Hannah took a deep breath and faced Sirius and Remus, her eyes swimming with fear.

"I'm. . . I'm. . . I'm. . ." she started, like a broken record. She paused and took another deep breath and started over. "I'm . . ." One more deep breath. "I'm dating Draco Malfoy."

Even I was slightly stunned by this admission. Draco Malfoy? If he was anything like his parents he didn't really seem the type. Then again, Hannah didn't seem the type to lie so how well could I really know her?

". . . Want to run that by me again?" Sirius asked. He'd done nothing but bad mouth the Malfoys and their kid since day one. To find out that Hannah was dating him was completely unacceptable.

"I've been dating Draco Malfoy," Hannah repeated more confidently this time.

"Oh, you've _been_ dating him. And how long has that been going on?" Sirius asked, the anger rising up.

"Only about. . . Exactly one. . ."

"One week?" Sirius asked hopefully.

If Hannah was a teenage girl and was getting silent now that she had to give them an actual time frame it was definitely not one week.

". . . Year," Hannah said.

Sirius was turning a very impressive shade of red, one I'd be hard pressed to mimic.

"Okay, before you yell at me can I ask you something?" Hannah asked.

"I suppose," he said.

". . . Are you angrier that I'm dating Draco or that I lied about it for a year?" Hannah asked.

"I'm not sure," he said.

"You shouldn't be 'not sure'. You're supposed to be mad that I lied," Hannah said.

"But Malfoy-."

"Draco doesn't matter. He's just any other boy. And sure he has his moments of extreme excessive stupidity and he has a tendency to behave as Slytherins do, but he's still just another boy," Hannah said. "The whole reason I haven't told you until now is because. . . Well look how you're reacting."

I was done watching her get fed to the sharks. I had to help her.

". . . She's got a point," I said.

"A point?" Sirius asked seeming completely offended by the fact that I was butting in _and_ helping her case.

"Well, you really don't like the Malfoys and every time you talk about them you make a point to make sure everyone knows exactly how much you hate them," I said. "I would be terrified to tell you as well."

"It's the spawn of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy!" Sirius said.

"And you're the spawn of your mother but look how you act," I pointed out.

"That's different. People actually like me," Sirius said.

"I like Draco," Hannah said. "I'm going to keep dating him with or without your approval. . . But I'd much rather have your approval."

Sirius sighed. "You don't have my approval at all. . . But I suppose that I'll have to at least accept and respect the fact that you are dating him."

Hannah smiled. "Thanks."

But even though Sirius had decided to accept it, after dinner when the kids were heading upstairs to bed, he sat in the dining still sulking over it.

"Why would she lie?" he asked

"Because she was scared," I said. "You saw the look on her face when she told you."

"But why was she scared?" Sirius asked.

"You thought she'd just walk up to you and say 'Sirius, Remus, I know you hate him and his parents, but I'm dating Draco Malfoy and I really like him'? It's not an easy thing to do," I said.

"She could've at least tried," Remus said.

"You saw her with Malfoy. You knew that she was acting suspiciously with him. Sirius, she asked you about you would feel if she started dating. Put two and two together," I said.

"Why didn't you?" Sirius asked.

"Because I could care less who she dates, what house they're in, and who their parents are. She's 15, she's supposed to date boys," I said.

"Yes, but she's not supposed to lie about it and she's certainly not supposed to date a Malfoy of all people," Sirius said.

"Cut her a break," I said.

"Hannah doesn't lie, though. I've never known her to, anyway," Remus said. "I asked her explicitly if she was dating Malfoy and she told me no. She lied right to my face."

"Okay, she lied to me, and considering my hateful attitude about the boy it's not all that surprising, but Remus? Hannah doesn't lie to him. She can't even talk back to him. He's like her second favorite person in the universe. If she has balls enough to lie to him then what else is she lying about," Sirius said.

"You can't assume she's lying about everything because she lied to you once," I said.

"That we know of," Sirius said.


	23. Under the Mistletoe

"Who was your first girlfriend, Remus?" I asked, while Sirius was off talking to Hannah about Draco.

"Well, I've only ever had two that I count," Remus said.

"So there were other girls you don't count?" I asked.

"One girl, actually. Her name was Lisa. She used to stalk me. She also had kind of a violent streak so you did whatever she asked without question," he explained.

"Really?" I laughed.

"Yes. Even Sirius was frightened of her. In fifth year she asked me to Hogsmeade with her. I ended up hiding under James' invisibility cloak with him and Lily the whole day," Remus said.

I laughed again. "I can't believe someone stalked you, I mean, I can see why someone would want to stalk you-."

"I seem stalkable?" Remus asked.

"I don't mean that you have a neon light over your head that says you're easily stalked, I just mean, that you're a great guy and that there are probably a lot of girls who thought they weren't good enough for you and that one of them was so desperate that she actually resorted to stalking," I said. "You're a great catch."

"I don't think so," he replied.

"I know so. Trust me," I said.

"Oi! Tonks!" Sirius called out to me.

I sighed. "Excuse me."

I got up from the kitchen and went to walk to the lounge, but before I could even make it out the kitchen door I suddenly fell down for no reason at all.

I was lying on the floor for a moment, bewildered, before Remus came to check on me.

"Are you okay?" he asked helping me up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, still confused about what exactly just went down. I could always make sense of why I fell down—umbrella stands, untied shoestrings, sudden bouts of vertigo, but at the moment I was befuddled. "Did you see what happened?"

"I'm assuming you're referring to the reason you just faceplanted," Remus said shaking his head.

"Maybe I have some sort of inner ear disorder," I said.

"I reckon it's because you're a metamorphagus and you're always adjusting to a new center of gravity," Remus said.

"Wow! You know, I've never thought of that," I said.

"A likely reason," Sirius said popping up. "But more on that later."

"What is it?" Remus asked.

Sirius pointed above us at the top of the frame of the door.

Remus and I looked up above our heads.

Mistletoe of all things.

"We don't have time for this," Remus said.

"Sorry, but my Christmas spirit isn't going to let you leave this doorway until I see some snogging. Get it over with," he said.

I let out a sigh and looked over to Remus and realized that my heart was pounding so loudly in my chest that I could hear it in my ears. I didn't know why I was so absolutely terrified to kiss him. I mean, it was just Remus. He was just my friend. The world was not going to stop spinning if I did.

I had to remain calm. I was Tonks after all. I maintained my cool in the face of awkward situations. My whole life was an awkward situation.

"Alright, let's do this, Remus," I said.

I got up on my tiptoes and kissed him. It only lasted a second, but it was long enough to make my heart skip a beat.

We both pulled away at the exact same moment and I dropped back down to my feet. I looked up at him and smiled.

"Happy Christmas," I said.

"You too," he replied with a smile. "Now, excuse me."

Sirius stepped aside and let Remus walk by. Then Sirius looked at me, a mischievous look on his face.

"Oh, what is it?" I asked.

"Nothing. That was just. . . It seemed very natural," Sirius said. I rolled my eyes at him. "Come on, you know you liked it. I've heard that Remus is a class A snogger."

"He's my friend, Sirius. I was indifferent to it," I said. "I don't know where you got the idea that I might have feelings for him."

"Remus is my best friend and you are my cousin and I know you both better than you know yourselves," Sirius said. He gave me a wink. "Sooner or later those feelings are going jump out and you're not going to be able to handle it."

888

The next morning I was sitting on the couch, still in my pajamas, waiting for Hannah and Ginny to wake up.

"Sirius, don't you dare unwrap any of those gifts," Molly said.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius complained.

I suppressed a giggle and Remus smiled from his spot next to me on the sofa.

"Not until the girls get down here," Molly said.

"Just one, Molly?" Sirius pleaded.

"No. No presents until Hannah and Ginny get downstairs," Molly said.

"But that could take _forever_," Sirius whined.

I rolled my eyes. "He's such a little kid," I said.

"He always has been. I told you he went all crazy about Christmas," Remus said.

"But not so far as to cry about not opening his presents," I pointed out.

"You thought wrong," Remus said.

"Happy Christmas, you guys," Hannah said, arriving with Ginny.

"Yay!" Sirius cheered. "Can I now, Molly?"

"Yes, Sirius," Molly said. Sirius dashed off toward the tree. "Sometimes you are worse than the children are."

"It's okay, Mrs. Weasley. It's Christmas. He's supposed to be filled with childlike wonder," Hannah said.

"What's his excuse every other day of the year?" Remus whispered to me.

I couldn't help but chuckle. Sirius came up to me from the floor and sat a package on my lap.

"You actually got me something?" I asked.

"I didn't physically go out and get it, my toady here did, and-"

"I am not your toady, and if you call me that again, I shall kick you," Remus warned him.

"_Remus_ went out and bought it for me, but I told him what to get, so I thought of it all by myself," Sirius said. "Go on and open it."

I pulled the paper open and lifted it out of its packaging.

"It's a journal," I said, then chuckled.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"Yes, but Sirius, I haven't kept a journal since I was twelve," I said.

"Well, the new year starts in six days. No better time to start than the beginning of a new year," Sirius said.

I smiled. "I think I will. Thank you."

"While you're in the gift opening mood," Remus said, grabbing a gift from under the tree. He handed it to me while Sirius went to investigate Hannah opening her gifts.

"It's a book, isn't it? You said you got everyone a book so their IQ wouldn't drop as low Sirius'," I said.

"Yes, I got you a book," he said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You're going to open it now anyway," he said.

"Okay." I laughed. "Will I like it?"

"We'll see," he said.

I pulled the paper back and pulled it out.

"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. What's it about?" I asked.

"It's about a guy who's born with an amazing sense of smell and he sets out to make the perfect perfume," Remus explained.

"And the murder aspect?" I asked. He winked at me.

"It seemed like something you might enjoy," he said.

"Well, I trust your judgment, and between you and me, I wouldn't read anything Sirius gave me," I said. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he said. "Now, if you'll excuse me a moment, I have to go get Hannah's gift."

Remus got up and walked out of the room.

I opened the cover to the book and on the inside was written a little message:

_Tonks,_

_If you don't find the "climax" of the story amusing, then I guess it means I don't know you as well as I hope I do. Happy Christmas._

_Love,_

_Remus_

Now I was curious about how the book ended and didn't hesitate to start reading it.

I was torn away from it when Sirius made a very loud proclamation.

"I feel like saying something in the Christmas spirit now. . . I know I'll quote Tiny Tim!" he said.

"Please don't," I said, throwing a bow at him.

"God bless us, everyone!" he cheered. Groans rolled through the room.

888

"How do you like it so far?" Remus asked as we sat in the living room around the fire that evening.

"It's is. . . Interesting. It makes me want to smell things again for the first time," I said.

"Yeah, I was like that too," he replied.

"Seriously, Lupin?" Hannah asked. She'd been reading through all of her mother's old journals which had been in the crates that Sirius had from Lily.

"Seriously what?" Remus asked.

". . . You were dating my mum all incognito like?" Hannah asked.

Sirius laughed. "I remember that."

"I don't find that humorous at all," Harry said.

"It's really funny how you two are freaking out," Sirius said.

"Shut up," Hannah said, dismissive of Sirius as always.

"Why don't you make me?" Sirius asked.

"I don't make trash I bury it," Hannah said.

Sirius was silent.

"Want some ice to go with that burn, Sirius?" I asked.

"Shut up, Nymphadora," Sirius said.

I stuck my tongue out at him and laughed.


	24. Meet the Tonks'

Christmas was nearly over by now. Molly and Arthur had gone off to bed, the children were lounging around random places around the house, and I had taken to sitting in the kitchen, as usual, with my two favorite people.

"So while the children aren't trying to eaves drop, what's up with Hannah's memory lapses? Dumbledore figured them out?" I asked.

"We're still with our original theory that Voldemort is trying to use Hannah to get information," Lupin said.

"Our own asset is being used as a weapon," Sirius said.

"Asset? I didn't hear about this in the last meeting," I said. Though, that could've had something to do with the fact that the last time there was an Order meeting I was in the hospital, but those were little details.

"We figure that if Voldemort can get into Hannah's head, maybe Hannah can get into his," Sirius said.

"She could never do something like that. First of all, Voldemort is probably skilled in occlumency, secondly, Hannah can barely read her own mind, let alone an evil wizard overlord's," I said. "And learning to do that puts a terrible strain on the mind and your body. She could hurt herself."

"So does fighting dementors and-."

"It's not the same Sirius and Remus. Dementors make you relive your own nightmares. She'll be able to see someone else's. Voldemort's of all people," I said. "Think back on all of things he's done. For her to be able to see that it's completely out of the question."

"Well it really all comes down to whether or not she's willing to do it or not," Sirius said.

"But you know she will. She'll do anything she can to help," I said.

"And why deny her the opportunity?" Sirius asked.

"Because she's 15. Because it's dangerous and you should care about her more than to put her in that situation," I said.

Sirius sighed. "You worry too much."

"Maybe you don't worry enough," I said. "I don't understand how you can flip out over her dating a boy but be completely okay with her infiltrating Voldemort's mind."

"And with that, everything should fall into perspective," Remus said.

At least Remus had my back on this one.

Sirius shook his head. "I don't know. It's really up to her."

Remus sighed. "What a fool I was to think that you'd actually make logical sense."

I shook my head. "Look, I'm going to tell the kids goodnight and then stop over at my parents' house for a bit. We are not finished with this conversation, Sirius."

"Says you," Sirius said. There was no point in arguing with him. He was an idiot.

I walked out of the kitchen and into the lounge where Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Hannah sat talking.

"Hello, children-."

"I'm not the one that's in love with a stripper!" Hannah proclaimed suddenly, catching me off guard. Part of me wanted to ask what they were talking about, but I supposed some questions were better left unanswered.

"Well that was nice to walk in on," I said with a smile. "Anyway, I was just heading home. I wanted to say goodbye."

"You're leaving? Why? You have to stay forever and ever and ever!" Hannah said.

"I'll get rope. We can tie her up and lock her in the closet," Hermione said.

"I can't. I'm sorry. I haven't been home in days and I have to see my parents, but I'll be back tomorrow," I laughed.

"I will hold you to that," Hermione said.

"Alright. Harry and Hannah don't hassle Lupin. Hermione and Ron. . . Don't do anything stupid that you may regret in the future," I said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked.

"It means. . . Don't be stupid," I said. "And if you must. . . Be safe."

I skipped out of the lounge and back into the kitchen. Sirius had gone off to bed and Remus looked like he was straightening up before he made his way there as well.

"Sorry about Sirius. I know he's an idiot," Remus said putting a few glasses away in the cabinet.

"It's not your fault he's an idiot," I said. "I think it's because he's a product of incest."

"That could be it," Remus replied with a chuckle. "Idiot or not, Sirius would not let anything happen to Hannah."

"I know he wouldn't," I said. "But to even think that he would let her do something like that puts me off." Remus chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"When did we three become responsible for those two in there?" he asked.

I smiled. "I dunno. . . I guess they chose us didn't they?"

888

"Who is it?" I heard my father call from the other side of the door.

"It's me!" I called back. "Let me in, dad."

A moment later the door opened and Dad stood there, smiling at me.

"Dora!" he cheered, embracing me tightly.

"Hey, Dad," I said. "I can't breathe."

Dad let me go and pulled me inside the house.

"Annie!" he called out. "Annie! Dora's here!"

The kitchen door swung open and there stood my mother.

"Well, look who showed up," she said.

"I wouldn't miss Christmas," I said as I took my cloak off.

"And yet you have. It's nearly midnight now. Where've you spent your day?" Mom asked coming over and hugging me.

"You know, with the Weasleys and others," I said.

"And the Order," Mom said.

". . . Yeah," I admitted.

"So you blew us off to spend time with your new work buddies?" Mom asked.

"I'm sure it wasn't like that," Dad said.

"It wasn't. You see a few days ago some stuff happened and security got a little tighter because now there are some contingencies we have to deal with in light of the recent events-"

"You mean like you getting attacked by Fenrir Greyback and nearly being killed?" Mom asked.

"Nearly killed. 'Nearly' implies that I was, in fact, not killed," I said.

"Dora, you couldn't have sent us an owl telling us you were okay?" Dad asked.

"I was there for nearly a week. You could've come to visit me," I pointed out.

"Don't you try to turn this around on us, young lady," Mom said. "Your father and I worry about you so much and we have to hear from the papers that you've been hospitalized after you were attacked and massacred by two werewolves."

"Neither of which bit me, but both of which are now in Azkaban, thanks to me," I said. "You made an awesome kid. Be proud."

"Just because you didn't die does not mean you are off the hook," Mom said.

"But we are very proud of you, sweetheart," Dad said.

"Thank you dad. I'm an Auror. My life is supposed to be dangerous and unpredictable," I said. "And as for today, I'm sorry I didn't come earlier. I was just. . . . Well, they asked me to stay and the kids they were really looking forward to me staying and-"

"Children? There are children in the Order?" Dad asked.

"No, but Molly and Arthur's children are there and so are Harry and Hannah Potter and their friend from school," I explained.

"The Potters are there?" Mom asked.

"Yes. We're keeping an eye on them," I said.

"And what are they like?" Mom asked.

"They're all right," I said. Understatement of the year.

"All right?" Mom asked.

"They're just normal kids. Harry's loves Quidditch and his girlfriend is a seeker. Hannah loves potions and has some of the highest grades in her school," I said. It probably wouldn't be such a good idea to mention Hannah's boyfriend was Draco Malfoy considering how much my mother detested her sister, Narcissa, and by proxy, her offspring.

"And were they the ones who begged you to stay?" Mom asked.

"They said they would tie me up in a closet so I could never leave unless I promised to come back," I said.

"They must really like you," Mom said.

"And who wouldn't love our Dora?" Dad said, grinning broadly.

"Maybe one day she'll have kids of her own that love her to death," Mom said.

I groaned. "Mom, did you know that the human brain doesn't stop developing until you're 22?"

"You are 22," Mom said, not looking forward to where my question was going.

"Exactly. I've only just stopped growing and developing. I mean, this is not the time for me to go out and start making life altering decisions," I said.

"You're not seriously using that as your excuse?" Mom asked.

Damn right I was using that as my excuse.

"It's science," I said.

"Well I'm not saying you need to go out and get married right now, but I am saying your life of going from boy to boy should stop and you should try out a stable relationship," Mom said.

"I do not go from guy to guy. I mean, I dated around in Hogwarts and that thing I had with Charlie was serious. . . Until he moved to Romania and I never heard from him again," I said. "But then there was Bill. . . But we're just better off as friends. . . I'm not really proving my case, am I?"

"Nope," Mom said with a smile.

"Don't rush yourself, sweetheart, Andromeda's just anxious," Dad said. "I look at you and I still see my little girl."

"Thanks, Dad," I said. "Did you like your gifts?"

"I loved them," Dad said, wiggling his feet in his new house shoes.

"And your robe, Mum?" I asked.

"It's nice," she said with a smile. "And you? How do you like your new boots?"

"Not only were they cute, but they'll stop me from slipping when I walk. I appreciate that very much," I said.

"Well, you know we don't like to see you fall down and hurt yourself all the time," Dad said.

"Not that you're ever around for us to see it," Mom said.

"Mom, I promise I'll come and visit you or at least write you more often," I said.

"Every week," Mom said.

"Mother!" I complained.

"At your leisure dear," Dad said.

Dad always was more reasonable than my mother, though I admit I'm probably just as stubborn as she was.

"I expect you'll need to be getting back then," Dad said.

I looked down at my watch. It was just past midnight.

"Yeah, guess so," I said. "I'll be seeing you guys later then."

I hugged each of my parents.

"And you'll write more?" Mom asked.

"Yes, and I may even send a picture or two," I answered.


	25. The Visitor

Back at Grimmauld Place over the next few days, things went by too quickly and even I found myself dreading that the kids were going back to school.

The last evening before their departure was a quiet one. I was sitting in the lounge, finishing up the book Remus had given me while he and Sirius played a game of Wizard's chess.

"You lasted much longer this time," Remus said.

"That's what she said," I put in from the couch.

"Well, look whose mind is in the gutter," Sirius said. "How's your book coming?"

"Oh, it's 'coming' alright," I said.

"What?" Sirius asked as Remus laughed. "What the hell are you reading?"

I looked over to Remus. "Your mind is so horribly filthy," I laughed.

"Okay, seriously tell me what you're reading," Sirius said.

"The book 'climaxes' at an orgy. That is hilarious and so wrong," I said.

". . . Perfume. Murder. An orgy. I believe I'm going to want to read that book when you've finished," Sirius said.

Just then, off the landing upstairs Ginny rushed out of her room looking horrified. She looked down to us and without any words motioned to us to come quickly. Before we could even ask her what was going on she was at Harry's door banging on it as loudly as she could.

We sprinted upstairs as Harry ran as fast as he could into Hannah's room.

"What's going on?" Molly asked as she and Arthur walked out of their room.

"It's him. He's here," Ginny said going back into her room.

It felt as though ice were coursing through my veins. _Him? Here?_

The only person she could be talking about was Voldemort.

"Get out of my sister," Harry said pointing his wand at Hannah, Ginny and Ron at his side.

"Ah, just the boy I've been waiting for," Hannah said. But I could tell this wasn't Hannah. It looked and sounded like her, but the way she was now carrying herself, the way she addressed Harry, Voldemort had control of her. "But where have your manners gone? Last time we spoke you were so. . . polite."

"I'm through being polite god damn it! Give me back my sister," Harry said.

"Or else what? You'll jinx me? Well, you should know that that would be moot. You'll only be harming poor Hannah and I'll be able to retreat safely to my body," Voldemort said.

A moment of silence passed and a looked irritation washed over her face.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.

"Well, actually I wanted to talk to you," Voldemort said. "But I'll give your sister some credit. She didn't make it easy for me."

"That's because she's been practicing Occlumency," Ginny said.

"Oh, really?" Voldemort asked.

"I read about it in a book. After she asked me for her help once she realized you were getting into her head the same way you got into mine we decided it would probably help her," Ginny said.

Thank goodness Hannah was a smart girl.

"Well if she had been more skilled it may have worked," Voldemort said.

"Leave her alone now," Harry said.

"I will, but I give you this warning—I will be back for your sister and when I do come back there will be no stopping me and if you interfere I will kill her," Voldemort said.

Hannah dropped to her knees and her hands grasped as her head.

Harry walked over to her and dropped down to his knees.

". . . Hannah. . ." he said hopefully.

". . . Harry. . . It hurts. . ." she whimpered pathetically.

With a sigh of relief Harry took me into his arms.

"She said. . ." Hannah started.

"Don't worry about it, Hannah," Harry said.

"No. . . He said. . . He said he wants me to do something," Hannah said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. . . He said using me to funnel information out of the Order was only part of his plan. That he wanted me for something else," Hannah said. She looked past Harry and looked directly at us. She looked each of us in the eye as if to say she was sorry. She knew now that she was responsible for the information leaking out of the Order to the death eaters and that she'd put us all in danger. "But I don't know. . . I don't know what he wanted."

We all exchanged glances. From the look on everyone's faces I could tell that I wasn't the only one horrified from what had just happened and feeling completely helpless about what to do now, aside from the accepting the fact that Hannah was okay and that it was a blessing considering things could've been worse.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Hannah replied. "I think I just need to sleep."

888

"How the hell did this happen?" Sirius asked. "Why didn't we see this coming?"

"I don't know," I said. "There's hardly anything we can do about it now. Things could've been worse."

"Much worse," Remus replied.

We weren't able to sleep after that, and so we'd been sitting in the kitchen, awake, talking.

"At least she's okay now. I'd better stop thinking over it before I drive myself insane," Sirius said. "Onto other things, it's her isn't it?"

"What?" Remus asked.

"She said Voldemort wanted her to do something. That just about solves the mystery of which of them he's after doesn't it?" Sirius asked. "He's going to use her to try to get the prophecy."

"Dumbledore said they're so similar that he would more likely go after her didn't he?" I asked.

Remus nodded.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"Keep an eye on her obviously," Sirius said.

"If we try to keep tabs on her and everything that she's doing she's going to go mental," I said.

"We haven't got much of a choice. She could get hurt," Sirius said. "It's only natural that we're going to be overly concerned about her now, whether she likes it or not. She's smart enough to realize that on her own."

888

I'd gone to work after we dropped the children off at Hogwarts the next day. There wasn't much for me to do except catch up on some filing.

I hadn't even been there an hour when, who should appear at my cubicle but good ol' Lucius Malfoy.

"Well if it isn't the auror Tonks," he said.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked.

"How was your holiday break?" he asked.

"Just fine thank you. Again, can I help you with something?" I asked.

"Am I to understand that you spent your holidays with the Potters?" he asked.

"I spent it with the Weasleys who happened to have the Potters along for the ride," I said.

"How interesting," he said.

"No, you know what is interesting is that you seem to loathe the Potters, but I heard through the grape vine that Hannah is just _so _smitten with your son," I said. Lucius leered at me. "I also hear tell that this relationship isn't very one sided either. I heard Draco is a regular Casanova. You must be so proud of him dating a girl who people think is loony."

"Who my son is dating is none of your concern," he hissed at me.

I nodded. "I completely agree. But it is _your_ concern isn't it? So what's more important—your job or your son?"

Lucius glared at me—oh, if looks could kill.

He raised his hand and tossed a file down onto my desk.

"I came to inform that we are reopening Hannah Potter's file. She is actively being investigated for the murder of Cedric Diggory."

My stomach twisted itself into a knot. I looked up from the file to Lucius. "Guess it's your job takes precedence over you own son. . . Pity."

888

"As if we weren't dealing with enough problems," Sirius said when I came to see him after work the next day. "She's actually going to go crazy if this keeps up."

"Well it's not as if she knows they're looking into her, do they?" Remus pointed out.

"But how long does that last? The further into her they get the more public this is going to be made. The very fact that Lucius even bothered to tell me they were looking into her again shows that there's some new evidence on her," I said.

"What could they possibly have? She didn't do anything," Sirius said.

"Someone is setting her up," I said.

"Who would set up a 15-year-old girl for murder?" Sirius asked.

"A crazy person," Remus said.

"We know plenty of crazy people who don't like Hannah in the Ministry," I said.

Molly walked into the kitchen at that moment, holding two letters in her hand.

"Sirius, you've got a letter from Hannah," she said.

"Already?" he asked.

"Well, I've already gotten a letter about Ron causing trouble at school so why not you?" she asked.

"What could Ron have possibly done?" I chuckled.

"Well he didn't do anything exactly. Apparently Hermione and that Brown girl he used to date got into a row and it escalated," Molly said.

"Oh, my," I said. "Poor, Ron, just has all these girls throwing themselves at him and has no idea how to handle it."

"Oh. . ." Sirius said sadly as he looked over his letter. "This is bad."

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"Hannah obviously, neurotic as always," he said. "She says none of this is her fault and she really did try to stay out of trouble, but Umbridge put her on a student contract, she has detention for the rest of week and has to write 'I will not say werewolves are good teachers'-"

"Didn't she get in trouble over you the last time?" I asked Remus.

He shrugged.

"Oh, you didn't let me finish that little gem. She has to write that in her own blood," Sirius said.

"Surely you must be joking," Molly said.

"Don't think so. Harry might've said something along the same lines when he had detention with Umbridge," Remus said.

"That woman is mad. Mad as a hatter," I said.

"And she knows about the investigation and wants come back," Sirius said.

"Take a good long look at that letter, Sirius. That's probably the last sane piece of communication you'll have for a long time," Remus said.


	26. And Then the Kitchen Door Opened

"Want to hear some bad news?" Kingsley asked stepping into my cubicle the next morning.

"I'm so over bad news. Tell me some good news. How did your meeting with Dumbledore and Umbridge go?" I asked.

Kingsley sighed. "So you _do_ want to hear bad news."

I slammed my head down onto my desk. "What is it then?"

"Basically, when I went to speak to the 'High Inquisitor' about her punishments she saw it fit to enact a new educational decree to address the issue," he said.

I tapped my fingers impatiently, waiting for him to tell me how Umbridge had ruined things this time.

"It states that teachers may use any form of punishment they deem appropriate regardless of pain or tediousness," he said. I groaned. "It gets worse."

"Of course, because it only can get worse," I said reclining back in my chair.

"I've been assigned to Hannah's case," he said.

I laughed. "You're not serious?"

"Afraid so," he replied.

"Well, at least you'll be close enough to the situation to figure why all this nonsense is going on," I said.

"Even more than that I get to be a part of the nonsense," he said with a chuckle. "But it does get worse."

He tossed a copy of _The Daily Prophet_ onto my desk. The headline was _Hannah Potter Prime Suspect in Diggory Murder._

"Well. . . Shit," I said.

"Right," he said.

"She must be losing it. Imagine going to a school where everyone is convinced you're a murderer," I said.

"Hannah will manage fine," Kingsley said. "Whether or not I will is still undetermined."

888

Weeks passed without a word from Hannah or any of the children and we all assumed that they were doing fine. Also, none of the times that Snape or McGonagall had been by they had nothing bad to say about them.

Lucius Malfoy had not been back to irritate since our first meeting and Kingsley felt that things were at a dead end.

"I think this whole thing has really gotten them to turn around—especially Hannah," Sirius declared at dinner. "I mean, slap a murder investigation into the mix and suddenly everyone knows how to behave."

"I could only assume as much," I replied.

"Yeah, Hannah's not exactly the sort who goes out actively looking to be thrown into prison after all," Bill said.

"Is anyone?" Sirius asked.

"So says the man who spent 13 years in Azkaban and then broke out and attempted to commit the murder he was thrown into jail for and escaped on a hippogriff who was condemned to die? Right—no one actively goes out looking for reasons to be thrown into jail," I said.

Sirius scoffed as Molly walked into the kitchen.

"Look at the state of this place. I leave for a few days and you all act like you don't know how to clean anything," Molly said.

"We're sorry Molly," I said.

"You'd better be. I've got a letter for you," she said tossing one across the table to me.

I gasped. "Me? No one writes to me."

"It's from Hannah," she said.

"What would she write to you and not to me for?" Sirius asked.

"Maybe it's something to do with girls. She wouldn't want to talk to you about that," Bill said.

"And I wouldn't want her to either," Sirius replied as I the letter.

_Dear Tonks,_

_How are you? I'm fine. I think. I don't know. I'm horribly confused at the moment. I am so incredibly confused. So it's like this you see, my one year anniversary with Draco was on Christmas Eve, but obviously we couldn't spend it together so we celebrated it yesterday on the anniversary of our one month anniversary because we are dorks. I now understand why people tell us we are sickeningly adorable. Anyway, we were having a lovely night just hanging out and whatnot like we always do and well. . . Draco said he loved me. And he told me I didn't have to say it back if I didn't mean, but he still said it like it was normal or something. It just came out like, "I love you". Who says that? And then, you know what I said to him? I said "thank you". What is wrong with me? Why did I say thank you? I don't know what to do. Please help me._

_Seriously, help me,_

_Hannah_

I laughed.

"What is she okay?" Sirius asked.

"She's fine. Just. . . Boy trouble," I said.

"Boy trouble? That Malfoy boy do anything to her? I swear, I'll go grab Remus right now and we'll go up to Hogwarts and kill him. Remus is a werewolf right now. It'll be bad. Shit will go down," Sirius said.

"It's nothing like that you dolt," I said. "Malfoy is fine. Hannah is fine."

"Then what boy trouble are you talking about?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know if I should say," I replied. "I think she might be angry if I did."

"But I thought we agreed not to keep secrets the two of us. She said she'd tell me everything," he said.

"She will when it's important. It's just. . . I think she's trying to sort out whether or not this is important or not," I said.

"And why would she talk to you about it?" Sirius asked.

"Because she needs a woman's perspective obviously," Molly chimed in.

"Well that's what she's got Hermione for," Bill said.

"You both are so thick," Molly said. "She doesn't need her friend to tell her what's going on. Hermione is 16. She doesn't know what she's doing either."

"Oh, and Tonks does?" Sirius asked.

"I second that," Bill said.

"Well. . . I suspect she's talking to Tonks because. . . Well she hasn't got a mum," Molly said. "Hannah's probably happy that she has someone to talk to like that. She hasn't had it before."

"Well she's had you," I pointed out.

"I've got six boys and _Ginny_. I'm no help either," she said. "But Tonks, she's exactly the kind of help that Hannah needs."

"Thanks Molly," I said.

"Right. . . So what she said then?" Molly asked.

"But you just agreed that I shouldn't say anything!" I pointed out. Had everyone taken their crazy pills tonight.

"Well the girl cannot be trusted is all," Molly said.

"Oh, rubbish. She lied about the boy once," I started.

"For an entire year," Sirius said.

"Because she was scared," I reminded them. "I promise there's nothing in this letter that she would be she scared to tell you. She's just. . . Confused about a sudden change that's taken place."

"A sudden change. What could—she hasn't put out has she?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, for the love of—no, she hasn't," I said.

"Then just tell us what's happened," Sirius said.

But then the kitchen door opened again, but this time a smug looking Snape walked into the kitchen.

"Snivelly, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be looking for ways to make your hair even greasier?" Sirius asked.

"As amusing as you find yourself this evening, I have come to deliver you some most interesting news about the trouble your Goddaughter has gotten into at school," Snape said.

"Trouble?" Sirius asked looking over at me.

"She was telling me about yesterday in this letter so whatever she's done she must've done after she wrote this letter this morning," I said.

"Lunch actually, missed all of her afternoon classes getting scolded," Snape said.

"Was she going on about Remus again?" Molly asked.

Snape laughed.

"Oh, why does that not sound promising?" Bill asked.

"But it's just the worst but of trouble she's gotten into in all her time at Hogwarts," Snape said.

Sirius sighed. "Why don't you just get it over with and tell us what she's done."

Snape smirked. "An interesting bit of information was being spread around Hogwarts, and then was confirmed by Hannah, and of course Draco Malfoy-."

Sirius groaned again. "I just knew that boy would be trouble. I just knew it."

"You haven't even let me get to the best part," he replied.

"Go on then," Sirius said dismissively.

"Apparently, tenacious Hannah has take it upon herself to engage in a fair few inappropriate acts with Mister Malfoy," Snape said.

Sirius went slightly pale, but wasn't in full blown angry mode. Perhaps, he thought they were just snogging aggressively in the hallway.

"So. . . If you were 15 and you got in trouble for engaging in a fair few inappropriate acts with your lady friend, you'd go back and tell your mates what?" Bill asked.

"Third base," Snape said.

Bill, Sirius, and I let out horrified gasps.

"Third base? What's that?" Molly asked.

Bill got to his feet, walked over to his mother and whispered in her ear. Then she let out a horrified gasp.

"No! Not Hannah! She would never do _anything_ like that," Molly said.

"Apparently she has," Snape said.

"Tonks!" Sirius shouted.

"What? I didn't do anything," I said.

"Recently," Bill said with a wink.

"Shut up!" I said.

"Tonks. . . What did her letter say?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing about that, I assure you," I said.

"You don't think he forced her to-."

"No, never," Bill said. "Pretty sure Hannah's way too strong to cave to pressure like that. Whatever she did with Draco, she did because she wanted to."

I think that thought bothered Sirius even more than Hannah being pressured into it.

"Hannah is not allowed to have any contact with Malfoy for the rest of the week," Snape said.

"Excellent," Sirius said. "She probably emasculate the boy while you're at it."

"Yes. We do find it troubling that Hannah and Malfoy are exceptionally difficult to keep an eye recently," Snape said.

"If only there was someone we could trust to keep an eye on her," Molly said. 

"Well it's not like there's anyone in the Order you could put a disguise on and sneak into Hogwarts," I said.

I skimmed back over Hannah's letter for a moment and them looked back up at everyone at the table. They were all staring at me.

"Have I. . . Missed something?" I asked.

"I'm going to leave while you all actually consider this ludicrous plan," Snape said. Snape walked out of the room, and I remained sitting there, confused.

". . . What's going on?" I asked.

"You know. . . _You_ are actually capable of putting on a disguise and sneaking into Hogwarts," Sirius said.

I scoffed. "So what? You want me to put on a new face and walk around Hogwarts spying on them."

"It's brilliant isn't it!" Sirius said.

"It's devious. Spying on," I said. "Like you don't-."

"Trust her?" Sirius asked.

I sighed. I guess that ship _had_ sailed.

"But doesn't it seem rather drastic? Besides Dumbledore would never approve of it," I said. "Not to spy on the kids."

Then the kitchen door opened, again, and Dumbledore walked in.

"Alas! The voice of reason!" I said. "Please tell them that it is completely illogical to send me into Hogwarts to spy on children."

Dumbledore sighed. "But, Tonks-."

"No, no, no, no, no!" I said. How could this possibly be happening? How could they think this was a good idea? Sure, I wasn't thrilled about what Hannah had been getting into, especially considering all the trouble she was in already, but this seemed like a bit much.

"Tonks, I know it may seem a bit unorthodox for you to go to Hogwarts posing as a student in order to keep an eye on them but, I insist that you don't know the extent of the horribleness that is going on there," he said. "The last thing we need is Hannah spiraling out of control at a time like this. If they know they're being watched, they'll behave better."

"But they're already being watched, by you and Snape and McGonagall," I said.

"I've been keeping an eye on Hannah for 14 years. Does it look like she's listening to me?" he asked. I sighed. "But, then there's you and Sirius and Remus and Molly and anytime she puts a toe out of line and you all have something to say about it she makes the most fabulous return to reality."

I groaned, slightly whining as well. "Please stop telling me I'm a good influence."

"But you are!" Molly said.

"Or at least you appear to be," Bill said. "Because you've done some stuff _way_ worse than getting to third base."

"Bill, shut up," I said.

"It would only be until the Easter Holidays," Dumbledore said. "Besides, somehow the auror office got the strangest idea that you've come down with a case of spattergroit."

"I don't really have a choice do I?" I asked.

"Oh, you always have a choice Tonks. That's what's so wonderful about having freewill," he said. "Now, whether or not you're going to cave to peer pressure is a completely different dilemma in itself."

I sighed. "Guess I'm going back to Hogwarts."


	27. Teenagers Scare the Living Shit Outta Me

_[A/N: Can you say foreshadowing?]_

"Anything you want me to pass along to Hannah when I go to Hogwarts?" I asked. I was preparing to leave to go to Hogwarts for my undercover mission. I was in the kitchen, as usual, with Sirius, Bill, and Remus.

"Tell her to just. . . Stop," Sirius said.

"Probably moot at this point," Bill said. "Would you have listened to an authority figure if you were in her shoes?"

"I didn't," Sirius said. "Which is why I'm so beside myself with worry—and fury."

"Hannah's smart," I said. I kept saying that over and over again and no one seemed to believe me anymore. I was starting to believe it less and less myself, but I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Or try to at least.

"Not that smart evidently," Remus said dismissively. He wasn't as adamant about his anger as Sirius was, being that he was reasonable and level headed, but I could definitely see him laying into Hannah the next time she saw him. He loved her like she was his own daughter.

"What was I doing February of my fifth year?" Sirius asked.

"Shagging anything that walked," Remus said. "Until Valentine's Day when you got back together with Veronica."

"Oh, that's right. Dear, sweet Veronica whose life I nearly ruined," he said.

"You almost ruined a girl's life? What'd you do? Give her the clap?" Bill asked with a laugh.

"I wish," Sirius said.

". . . I think you ought to rephrase that," Remus said after a brief pause.

"I knocked her up," Sirius said.

I gasped. "I never knew that!"

"Of course you didn't. Your mum had stopped coming round by then. And after I told my mum we had that huge row and I got kicked out—not that I had planned on staying after all that anyway." Sirius said. "Her name was Lydia. We put her in an orphanage in Wales."

"Wait—you have an actual biological child floating around out there?" I asked. It was like I was seeing the world in a completely different light right now.

Sirius nodded. "She'd be 19 last month."

"Suddenly I feel incredibly insensitive about all those jokes I make about you having illegitimate children," Bill said hanging his head down.

"Yeah, it's only funny if it's not true," Sirius said. "It hurts a little every time you say it."

"Great—now I have guilt. And for Sirius no less," Bill sighed.

"But now everything with Hannah makes sense! I certainly wouldn't her taking after me either all things considered," I said. "I mean can you imagine if she-."

"Yes I can and don't speak it into existence," Sirius said.

"Do they know about your daughter? Harry and Hannah, I mean?" I asked.

"Yes—they knew and you didn't because I tell them everything," Sirius said.

"Sarcasm was not necessary," I said rolling my eyes.

"Hardly anyone knows, Tonks. Snape. The rest of my teachers from Hogwarts. Two of our friends Hogwarts and Wormtail. No one else living knows—except for Veronica."

"Why does that name keep ringing a bell in my head?" Bill asked. "Did we ever know her?"

"Maybe. She was a part of the Order originally. She moved to the states with her niece Danielle after Lily and James died," Sirius said. "But she moved back didn't she?"

"Yes and Danielle goes to Hogwarts now," Remus said.

"What about your other two friends?" Bill asked.

"Dana, still lives here," Remus said. "Her daughter goes to Hogwarts. Fred's girlfriend actually. She was in the Order too."

"Janessa wasn't in the Order because she didn't like Remus," Sirius said with a laugh. "Or rather, she did like him, but Remus dumped her and she stopped talking to the lot of us. She hates all of us now all because of him."

"It is not my fault and I doubt she hates us," Remus said.

"She hates us. I mean, did she show up at Lily and James' funeral?" Sirius asked.

". . . No," Remus replied.

"Was she there when Harry and Hannah or Emily were born?" Sirius asked.

Remus sighed again. "No."

"Well obviously she only hung around because she loved you and when that was over she was like 'fuck the rest of you guys'. I liked Janessa but she was extremely jealous and very flighty and now she's probably bitter," Sirius said. "And it's all your fault, Remus."

"Remus Lupin—teacher, werewolf, heartbreaker," I said with a wink.

888

"I don't want to do this," I said.

I was in Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts. I had been "sorted" into Gryffindor and was preparing for the greatest feat of useless espionage in the history of the world.

"You don't _have_ to do this," Dumbledore said. "I just _strongly encourage_ you to do this."

I sighed. My fake persona was Lynn Sknot—a "clever" name Sirius thought up. The kids would have to be idiots to not realize that it was my middle name and my last name spelled backwards. Maybe if they were Hufflepuffs, like me, they wouldn't catch it so quickly, but they were definitely going to size me up by the week's end.

"Hannah will be by shortly to give you a 'tour' of the school. You'll be staying in her dorm so you'll be able to watch them very closely," Dumbledore said.

"Super," I said. "And where are you going?"

"Staff meeting. I have to make sure my fellow professors don't commit murder where our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is concerned," he said.

Dumbledore walked out of the office and I was left sitting there.

I tugged at the tight blonde curls on my head to amuse myself until the door opened.

A rather irritated Hannah stood there in a knit Gryffindor sweater, elbow pads, knee pads, and shin guards. Clearly, she had been on her way to Quidditch practice.

_Time to put on a show._

"Hi!" I said getting to my feet. "Are you Hannah?"

"That I am. And you are?" she asked.

"Lynnette Sknot. That's S-k-n-o-t. You can call me Lynn," I said. "Dumbledore says I'm to be in your dorm as well."

Hannah sighed, not hiding her irritation at adding another member to her dorm.

"Well come along, Lynn," she said. "I'm actually going to be late to Quidditch practice for showing you around."

Hannah was so different here than she was Grimmauld. She was very angry and blunt. And I was already starting to get on her bad side.

"Oh, well if it's trouble you can show me around after practice," I said. "I don't mean to be a problem."

"Oh. . . Well, okay," she said sounding surprised. "I'll just show you to Gryffindor tower and our room then."

888

"You have _such_ nice hair, Lynn," Parvati Patil my new roommate said as she ran her fingers through it. "Is it curly like this naturally?"

"No," I lied. I had to be a blonde until March. I didn't want to be stuck with those curls for the entire time. "Lots of curling and product and whatnot."

The door opened and Hermione entered with a blonde girl I recognized from Platform 9 ¾ as Emily, Fred's girlfriend.

"Oh, hi," Hermione said.

"Girls, we have a new roommate. This is Lynn Sknot. Hannah dropped her off and then went to Quidditch practice cranky as usual," Parvati said. "I'm sure you just adored Hannah didn't you? She always gives the new students tours and hates every minute of it."

"I kind of got that impression, yeah," I admitted.

"That girl is pent up with so much sexual frustration that it was radiating across the room," Parvati said.

"Don't talk about her like that," Emily said crossing her arms in protest. "Hannah's not sleeping with Draco."

"As far as we know," Hermione said. "We didn't know what she was getting into with him until she told us mere days before Pansy outed her and Draco to the entire school."

"I promise Hannah isn't as big of a slut as our roommates are making her out to be. I _promise_," Emily said. Cleary, Emily was the nice one. Not exactly the type of girl I'd pick for Fred. "In fact, she's not a slut at all."

"No one ever said she was," Hermione chimed in.

"But that's what you're making it sound like. Everyone in the school is already calling her one behind her back. Don't need her friends doing it," Emily said. "Like she's not having a tough enough school year with everyone thinking she's crazy."

"Oh, yeah, if you're in any way in agreement with the ministry and the Daily Prophet and the bullshit they're spewing about Hannah and Harry Potter then you need to find someplace else to sleep," Parvati said.

"Well, last year everyone was very keen on whatever the three of them had to say. I reckon the minister is just scared they might be right," I said. "I think there's some sort of conspiracy going on with the _Prophet_ and the Ministry."

"Oh, good. You'll fit right in. We're all conspiracy theorist here," Parvati said. "Anyway, Emily's right. Hannah is not a slut. She's a 15-year-old girl who likes to mess around with her boyfriend. A lot of these girls here like to mess around with _other_ girls boyfriends. And you know who I'm talking about."

"Slytherins," Emily said rolling her eyes.

"That's why their mascot is a snake because they all love penis so much and it is the most phallic of all the creatures in the animal kingdom," Parvati said. I laughed. "And then you've got Ravenclaws who are actually pretty good about keeping it in their pants. Their house will never have a lecture about teen pregnancy. We can move onto Hufflepuffs who are a strange bunch so I believe they are either incredibly abstinent or into some really weird kinky stuff."

"Stop talking," Hermione pleaded.

"And then you've got us Gryffindors who I believe are the most normal," Parvati said. "We deal with everything—girls like Hannah who are too responsible to have sex and thusly just do 'other' things-."

"And then justify it by saying it's not really sex," Hermione chimed in again.

"There are girls like dear Hermione who pretend to be innocent when in all actuality she stole someone else's boyfriend and yes, Granger, we all know you and Ron go to make out behind the green house like every day after class."

"In my defense, Ron didn't even like Lavender and was only dating her to make me jealous," Hermione said.

"And he wouldn't have had to if you weren't so busy snogging Viktor Krum instead of him," Parvati said.

"Which only happened because Ron didn't ask her out to the Yule Ball in the first place," Emily said.

". . . Touché. Ron really needs to pull his head out of his ass," Parvati said. "Anyway, Miss, Lynn. Have you anyone special in your life?"

I shook my head. "I move around too much for that."

"Pity," Parvati said. "Well, there's plenty of guys here that into the whole hooking up thing, right Hermione, Queen of Bad Dating Decisions."

"_Please_, stop talking," Hermione repeated.

"When her boyfriend Ron was dating this girl Lavender to make Hermione jealous, she decided to date this sixth year by the name of Cormac McLaggen who is _gorgeous_ and plays Quidditch and is rich but is a completely tool," Emily said. "A lot like Hannah's boyfriend."

"Draco is not a tool. He surpasses tool. He deserves a swift kick in the balls—repeatedly," Parvati said.

"I'm not sensing a whole lot of love for Hannah's boyfriend," I said.

"The thing about Draco is that he is in love with Hannah. He loves how smart she is, he loves the way her hair looks, he loves that she is obsessive about potions and he loves that she is so sweet to everyone she cares about. But Draco _hates_ all Gryffindors, people under the age of 13, Hufflepuffs, first years, the Weasley family, people who are poor, and muggleborns. But he most especially hates us—Hannah's friends. Even more than that, he hates her two best friends and her brother with a really special kind of hatred," Parvati said.

"And if I have to hear him say 'my father will hear about this' one more time I'll hex his pants off," Emily groaned.

". . . Why is she dating him if he's such a horrible person?" I asked.

"She doesn't know he's a horrible person," Emily said. "He's an excellent liar, Draco."

"Every time he sees her he's a perfect angel. She even knows Draco doesn't like us, but when she's there he won't say a word to us," Hermione said. "As soon as Hannah's gone, he makes fun of Harry for existing, makes fun of Ron for being poor, and calls me a wildebeest and tosses 'mudblood' around like it was ever in style."

"Avoid him at all cost. You'd be better off having nothing to do with the boy ever in your life," Parvati said.

I didn't understand how Hannah could be so crazy about a boy who was so in skeevy.

"Why don't you just tell her that her boyfriend's a dick?" I asked.

"Because she'll be convinced she can change him, be convinced that we're lying to her, or break up with him and be depressed," Parvati said.

"We all think it's just better for her to kind of not break up with him at all or for her to just out grow him," Hermione said.

I was incredibly glad to not be a teenager anymore and to not be so stupid.

"Anyway, Hannah just got in trouble because this girl, Pansy who is obsessed with Draco and has been torturing Hannah since the very day they met, managed to get all the teachers in on what Hannah and Draco were up to and now they're not allowed to even be around each other for the rest of the week," Parvati said.

I hated to admit it, but it seemed like Sirius had been right about Draco being bad news. Everyone thought Draco was bad news, except for Hannah it seemed.

"Anyway, we're going to kidnap Harry and go to the library. Join us?" Hermione offered.

"Sure," I said. "I just need to finish unpacking my school things."

"Well, meet us in the common room in five minutes. It'll be a minute before we get Harry out of his room," Emily said. "He'll be sleeping, the lazy bastard. He's so useless without Quidditch."

"But have you seen the arms on that boy? It's like he was carved out of marble," Parvati swooned.

The girls walked out of the room and went over to my trunk. I pulled out a sheet of parchment to write my first report back to Sirius and Remus.

_Hello Boys,_

_I have successfully been assimilated into Gryffindor. It is strange. I prefer Hufflepuff. I haven't been here long enough to witness any improper conduct obviously, but Hannah and Hermione's roommates are total gossips—as is Hermione as it turns out. Who knew right? Also she's very disapproving of Hannah's behavior. Hannah apparently doesn't like new students and therefore I don't think she likes me much. She's at Quidditch practice with Ron so I haven't seen much of them. Harry is sleeping and we're currently going to kidnap him and go to the library._

_I have heard some unsettling things about the Malfoy boy. Everyone hates him, except for Hannah. And he hates everyone, except for Hannah and people in Slytherin apparently. I kid you not, he has been described as being the worst person on the planet and that I should avoid him at all cost unless I want my life ruined. I've been told that he's the world's greatest liar and that he's only ever legitimately nice to Hannah 100 percent of the time._

_Hopefully all my future correspondence will be as uneventful as this was. I still hate you for making me do this, Snuffles, you bastard, and you too Remus for not talking him out of it. I am currently shaking my fist at you in rage._

_Tonks_


	28. You Will Respect My Authority

_[A/N: And moving right along.]_

Classes were just like I remembered they were. It didn't help that every teacher in the Order giggled when they saw me. Dumbledore had told them _all _who I was. Snape of course, made it a point to pick on me.

But then I had DADA, which I had heard was horrible, and it was. Dolores Umbridge was just as irritating and evil as she was when she was being undersecretary.

I sat towards the back of the class next to one of Harry's roommates, Neville, whose parents were legends around the auror office.

I tried to pay attention and pretend to be studious, but I couldn't. The kids were right, every time she opened her mouth I wanted to smack her in it.

When class finally ended and I packed up my things. As soon as I was on the other side of the door, Hannah grabbed me.

"Hey, Lynn," she said as I stumbled over my feet.

"Bit clumsy are you?" Harry asked me.

"Just a touch," I replied calmly.

The twins, Hermione, and Ron started pulling me toward a deserted corridor. Either they knew or they were about to rob me.

"We know a few clumsy people ourselves," Ron said.

"Uh, what's this all about?" I asked.

"Her name," Hannah said. "Our clumsy friend. It's Nymphadora."

"Oh, what a peculiar name," I said. They totally knew. I needed to escape. "Excuse me."

"Not so fast, Tonks," Hermione said pulling me back. "Drop the act. We all know it's you."

I sighed. The jig was up. "How? How did you figure me out so quickly? We all assumed you would but wow," I said. I really was impressed. I was sure I wasn't behaving like my usual self.

Hannah scoffed. "Sknot? Really? You couldn't think of a stupider name?"

"Sirius actually couldn't think of a stupider name," I said. So it was all Sirius' fault. "Which is why I'm here in the first place."

"Because of me I assume," Hannah said, crossing her arms, going into defensive mode.

"He just wants to see that you, all of you, stay out of trouble," I said. "But especially you Hannah. He is not happy with you at all."

_And that is a severe understatement._

"I'm sure he isn't, but I'm not going to ever be able to trust him if he's pulling dirty tricks like this," she said.

I was starting to wonder if I was this self-important when I was 15.

"He wouldn't pull dirty tricks like this if you were able to keep other people out. Of. Your. Pants," I said hitting her upside the head with each final word. "What is the matter with you?"

"Do you have to hit me?" she asked rubbing her head.

"Maybe I'll knock some sense into you," I said. "I'm super disappointed in you too, you know? I took up for you when you told everyone you were dating Malfoy but now I have no idea if what I thought about you was true."

She sighed. "Okay. So, I lied a few times and I did some things I'm not exactly allowed to be doing but-."

"But nothing, Hannah. You. Are. In. So. Much. Trouble," I said whacking her upside the head again.

"Okay. I got the message. I'll be good from now on. I promise. Now go back to Grimmauld," she said.

"If it were that easy I wouldn't be standing here in the body of a 15-year-old now would I?" I asked. "I'm here until Easter break. If you haven't gotten it together by then, I'll be back here sitting with you in the Great Hall watching you like a hawk while you take your OWLs. Do you understand?"

Hannah groaned. "Yes."

_Liar._

"Good. In the meantime, Harry, what is that ridiculous thing on your neck all about?" I asked. I'd noticed hickey yesterday while we were in the library but hadn't been able to bring it up until now.

Harry immediately covered his neck. "I burned myself."

"Oh, Hannah, there you are," a Slytherin girl said running down the corridor toward us.

"Hi, Kristen," Harry said when she reached us.

"I believe I said 'Hannah' not 'Harry' didn't I?" she asked coldly, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, Hannah, here are some charms notes Draco said borrowed from you. Wanted you to have them back."

"Oh, tell him thank you," Hannah said.

Kristen nodded and, giving a curt glance to Harry, she walked off.

"Wasn't she your girlfriend?" I asked.

"Now she's my bitter ex-girlfriend," Harry said.

888

"You are incredible, Lynn," Parvati said looking over my potions notes. "How do you know so much?"

"Gifted," I replied. The only good thing about being back here at Hogwarts was that I could blow the others students minds with how smart I was from being an auror and from having already put in my time here.

"We really shouldn't stay up so late when we've got class in the morning," Emily said. "It's after midnight already."

I looked down to my watch to confirm it. I looked around the room as if I was going to find Hannah there. She'd left a long time ago and never came back.

"I bet Snape's going to like you, Lynn. He detest Gryffindors but he's less of an asshole to the kids who actually know what they're doing in his class—except Hermione," Parvati said.

"I'm the 'insufferable know-it-all' apparently," Hermione said,

"Hey, he just said what everyone was thinking, Sweetheart," Emily said.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the door to the room opened. Hannah walked inside and immediately locked eyes with me sitting on her bed. Then she looked to Hermione.

"Where have you been?" I asked casually as possible.

"Out and about," she said pretending to be just as casual as I was.

"It's twelve-thirty. Curfew is 11 o'clock. You've been gone since like, ten," I said, trying my hardest not to sound like a mom.

"Oh, Lynn, don't mind her. Hannah's always out past curfew. Those are the kind of things you get to do when your boyfriend is a prefect," Parvati said.

"She shouldn't be around her boyfriend being that's she been barred from seeing him until Sunday," Hermione said. Ah, so when I wasn't around Hermione took over the position of scolding Hannah for bad behavior. I approved of this.

"Whoever said I was out with Draco?" Hannah asked.

"But you were," Emily chuckled. "Or were you making out with someone besides your boyfriend? You've totally got the whole make-out flush all over your face."

"Okay, so I was with Draco. Are you surprised?" Hannah asked.

"I am," Hermione replied glancing over at me. Hannah's disregard for authority ran much deeper than I had initially anticipated.

"Look we didn't even do anything. We met up at ten-thirty, we chatted for a bit, and we ended up making out for longer than was intended," Hannah said.

"Making out, Hannah? Is that all? Really?" Parvati asked.

"Yes," she said.

"It's never just making out with you, darling," Parvati said matter-of-factly.

"Well that's what happened," Hannah said.

"I dunno, you've lied before," Parvati said incredulously.

"That's because you guys don't need a news flash every time Draco and I do something," Hannah said.

"Well," Hermione started, "as long as you don't sleep with him-."

"I haven't if that's what you're getting at. I'm not stupid," Hannah said, glancing at me again as if to further inform me that she was telling the truth. "And even if I had, it wouldn't matter because it would be between us. It's not really anyone else's concern what I do with my body is it?"

"I completely agree, Hannah," Emily said.

"But you're only 15!" I said, unable to completely control the part of myself that wanted to act like her mother—a reflex I'd no doubt picked up from Sirius and Remus.

"And she's completely capable of making her own decisions, even if they're frowned upon or stupid," Emily said.

The nice one was the one who was taking her side. I couldn't believe it.

"Thanks, Em," Hannah said with a nod.

"No, but seriously, you definitely didn't just make out with him right just then," Parvati said. She had a one track mind. "You're lying again. . ."

I really hoped she wasn't. I wanted to be able to write my "report" tonight and tell them that she was sticking to her guns.

"Okay, so we didn't just make out," Hannah said with a sigh. I mentally face-palmed myself.

Hermione crossed her arms and huffed. "Even though you told Harry-."

"Hermione, Harry doesn't control every facet of my life. And neither does Dumbledore, or anyone else for that matter," she said pointedly. "Sometimes, things just happen."

"Hannah, I swear, if you round third base again I'm going to kill you," Hermione said angrily.

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Of course you are."

"Seriously," Hermione said, "I'm not helping you take care of any illegitimate children you may conceive while you're 15."

"What about when I'm 16? Would you help me then?" she asked sarcastically.

"Not funny," Hermione said, clearly not amused. The time for jokes was over. I rolled off Hannah's bed and walked over to my own to write my report.

_Hello,_

_The jig is up. The kids know it's me. Thank you dog for the ridiculous dead giveaway name. Anyway, nothing much to report today except that Hannah is back to her old tricks. Even though she's barred from seeing Draco until Sunday, it has apparently not stopped her form visiting him, among other things unfortunately. Hermione is the voice of reason, but she's making about as much of an impression on her as we've been. It's really quite shocking that even though she knows who I am she still went gallivanting off with him. I honestly don't know what to do about her._

_Tonks_

I shoved the letter back into my nightstand while all the other girls prepared to settle themselves into bed. I had to say something to her to get the point across. I walked over to Hannah and she looked up at me.

"Hannah, can we chat in the hall for a moment?" I asked.

"Sure, Lynn," she replied.

We went into the deserted hall and closed our door behind us. I decided to just get down to it.

"Now, I know I'm in no way, shape, or form your guardian or parent or anything like that, but I have a very strong desire to just take a lead pipe and beat common sense into you with it," I said. "I know you're going to do whatever you want while you're here because obviously we can't control you, but I'm here. I'm here as Sirius' eyes and ears. He loves you like crazy and. . . You're worrying him."

"Look, I'm-."

"No. . . Hannah. . . You need to understand where Sirius is coming from and why it's so important that he be able to trust you. Why it's so important to him that you just stop behaving this way and doing these things," I said. She sat down on the floor with me and I took a deep breath. "He won't like that I've told you this—he doesn't talk about it to anyone ever anymore, but. . . You know how he ran away from home to live with your dad when he was 16? It wasn't just because our family sucks. It's because Sirius got his girlfriend pregnant as well."

"Oh. . ." Hannah said finally having a moment of clarity.

"He had a little girl. Her name was Lydia. She was only around for about a week before she was adopted. Never saw her again," I said. "You, Hannah, apparently remind Sirius a lot of himself when he was here and obviously he doesn't want you getting knocked up when you've got so much life a head of you. Please be better, Hannah."

Hannah reclined back against the wall and looked down at her socks. This was a look I'd never seen her have before—guilt. "He'll still never trust me now," she said.

I shook my head. "I'm sure he will, in time anyway."

She leaned over and sat her head on my shoulder.

"I'm stupid aren't I?" she asked.

I sighed. "Honestly. . . Yes." She laughed. "But everyone is when they're 15. It's okay. You just have to stop making the same mistakes over and over again."


	29. Of Draco Malfoy and Other School Boys

_[A/N: Hello! Getting on with this one too then!]_

Hannah stayed away from Draco like she was supposed to after our chat, but after I'd sent out the report, I'd gotten a letter from Remus.

_Tonks,_

_I am writing on behalf of your cousin who is still shouting after getting your second letter. Someone obviously set their expectations quite high this time round. Anyway, he's angry. So angry in fact that this is the second draft of this letter. He threw the first one in the fire because I didn't properly express his absolute disgust it in the first one apparently. Have I ever told you how grateful I am that you're not as crazy as he is? Moving right along, if you somehow manage to get Hannah to behave and she decides she wants to write to Sirius, strongly discourage her from doing so. He's being angry and irrational and will probably throw the letter away. Give him some time to return to what is normal for him._

_Remus._

_P.S. Please come back soon. I miss you and I don't think I'm capable of handling Sirius' crazy on my own anymore._

I laughed at Remus' P.S. and then read the letter over again. I didn't think Hannah was in much of an apologetic mood, probably still feeling too guilty to talk to him yet. Aside from that she had other problems.

Her week of banishment from Draco was over and they were glued to each other at all times as a result.

But then they weren't together, things were all together different.

"I have just decided that magical theory is dumb. Defense against the dark arts should be subjective," Hermione complained.

I was sitting in the library with Harry and Hermione while Ron and Hannah were at Quidditch practice for their game tomorrow.

"I think I actually prefer Binns' class to this one, Harry said folding spare parchment into a Quidditch goal post. "What do you think, Lynn?"

"I can think of a thousand things I'd rather do than sit through that class again," I said.

"Well if it isn't Hannah's peeps," a voice hissed.

I looked up from pretending to read to see Draco standing there with his two flunkies Crabbe and Goyle stationed behind him.

"Go away. Daddy can't buy us all passing grades in Umbrdige's class. Some of us have to work for a living," Hermione said scribbling down furiously on her paper.

I hadn't experienced the kids being personally victimized by Draco yet so this was going to be an interesting experience.

"Well, maybe your boyfriend will be just like his dad and work for a living everyday of his life and still be useless and miserable," Draco said.

_Oh, no he didn't just bash Arthur Weasley. I oughta kick his ass._

"Look at that, Hermione, another joke about Ron being poor. How original," Harry said. "You'd think in all the spare time he has that he doesn't spend tonguing my sister he'd come up with something wittier."

"Obviously Hannah doesn't love him for his brains—if she loves him at all anyway," Hermione said.

"Yeah. That relationship is looking a bit one sided these days isn't it, Hermione?" Harry replied. "Pity."

Draco rolled his eyes. "I don't have time for this."

"Of course not. You have to go think of some more jokes that aren't funny," Harry said. "You should think of some to tell my sister the next time you see her so she'll actually know the reasons he doesn't love you is because subliminally she knows you don't deserve her because you're a right foul git."

"If you think I'm such a foul git then why don't you have the balls to tell her, Potter? You know she'll listen to anything you say," Draco pointed out. Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, I think I know why you won't because, she _does_ listen to you and if you tell her to dump me she will and that would just break her heart wouldn't? Because she loves me, whether she knows it or not and you know she does."

Harry rolled his eyes.

". . . I think if you really loved Hannah you might not treat her friends and her brother so badly," I said.

Draco looked over to me and cocked an eyebrow.

"Lynn Sknot is it?" he asked.

"Aye," I replied.

"Well, _Sknot_, I think it's best you keep to yourself and mind your own damn business or you'll find your time here isn't so pleasant," Draco said.

"Are you threatening me?" I asked.

"I don't know—are you going to be getting in my way again anytime soon?" he asked. He was threatening me. I could definitely take him—fist fight, wand fight, you name it, but it hit me that this was Hannah's boyfriend. For whatever reason she really, really liked him despite the fact that he was a horrible person. If I did ever hex him into oblivion or just give him a swift kick in the ass, she'd never forgive me for it. Suddenly I realized why it was so hard to tell her that he was evil. Who would want to deliver that kind of news to their friend?

"No. . . I don't think so," I replied.

Draco smirked triumphantly. He looked just like his smug prick of a father and my skin crawled.

"Then no, I'm not threatening you," he said. He looked back to Harry and Hermione. "See you all in class tomorrow."

He walked out of the library and Harry groaned.

"I hate him," he said.

"At least he didn't call me a mudblood this time," Hermione said.

"Right, never mind the fact that he's totally taking advantage of my sister's feelings. I can't believe she talked me into doing a double date with him on Valentine's Day. I think I might kill him," Harry said. "Do you see what I mean now? Do you see how awful he is? Do you see why I'm so upset at the fact that they're dating?"

I nodded. What an evil little boy.

"You have to find a way to talk some sense into her," Hermione said. "The rest of us are completely lost."

"I'm quite lost myself. How does she not see it?" I asked.

"You have to see them together," Harry said. "He is a damn fine actor."

"Seems like it," I replied.

888

Hermione and I returned to find a full dorm that evening. Hannah was sitting on her bed doing some homework, wet hair dangling down into her face.

"Oh, Hermione, you're back, can you please tell Parvati that the giants wars did _not_ take place in the 1920s? If she says it again, I might smack her," Hannah said.

"Parvati, that is completely wrong," Hermione corrected her.

"Thank you," Hannah said curtly.

"How was practice?" I asked.

"Dreadful. Angelina Johnson is a psychopath. Like, she was shouting at Ginny to practice the Wronski Feint, and Ginny's like 'who the eff do I look like—Harry Potter'. And then she yells at me like 'yell your friend to do it right' and I'm like 'I don't even know what the wonky faint is' and then she was angry because not only did I have no idea what she was talking about but I said it. And then Cormac yelling at me about my aim being off and I'm like 'did you miss concuss my boyfriend in my first match'. And now Angelina's also pissed off because I told her I'm cutting practice Saturday for Hogsmeade," Hannah said. "Essentially, I am the last person on Earth who needs to be playing Quidditch."

"You're not that bad, actually," Emily said. "At least that's what Fred says. He says you're a fine replacement."

"No sense in telling lies," Parvati said.

"We aren't friends anymore, Patil," Hannah replied.

"Whatevs, biotch," Parvati said. "Where were you two?"

"In the library," Hermione said. "Studying with Harry obviously."

"You know, it's funny, since he started hanging out with Lynn he's hardly been up Chang's ass at all," Parvati said.

"Are you insinuating what I think you're insinuating?" I asked.

"I'm not insinuating anything, Lynnette, but I do know that Harry Potter is a fine piece of ass. If the opportunity ever arises take it," Parvati said. "I definitely would. Wouldn't you Emily?"

"Nope," she replied.

"What if you weren't with Fred?" Parvati asked.

She sighed. "Definitely maybe. Probably. . . Yes."

I laughed. Oh, this line of questioning was so wrong. It was Harry. It was _so_ wrong.

"What about you Hannah?" Parvati asked.

"Incest," was all that she answered.

"Oh, right. I keep forgetting you're twins," she said.

"I bet that'd be hard to remember—we don't have matching names or anything," Hannah said. "I don't blame you."

"Okay Miss Sarcasm Pants," Emily said.

"Oh, Lynn!" Hannah said finally looking up from her homework. "I ran into Draco after practice. He says he finally talked to you."

"Oh, yeah. In the library," I replied sitting down onto my bed.

"I'd been bugging him. I told, 'Lynn is really cool and you should say hello'. What'd you think of him?" I asked.

Oh, no. I was being put on the spot, not as Lynn, but as Tonks, the only maternal figure she had in her life. I couldn't just lie to her and say he was wonderful, but I couldn't really just tell her I thought he was a no good piece of shit either.

"Well. . . I dunno. He's kind of. . . What's the word?" I thought.

"Evil?" Parvati said.

Hannah rolled her eyes.

"Abrasive," I said.

"Abrasive?" she asked.

"Yeah, like. . . I got the feeling he didn't like me very much. . . Or Harry or Hermione for that matter. . . It was all very. . . Forced," I said.

"Oh," Hannah said flatly, as if she was shocked that I wasn't praising her for her choice. "But like. . . How could he, like, not like you?"

"Because you're the only person Malfoy likes, Hannah," Parvati said.

"Will you shut up, already?" Hannah hissed, obviously irritated. "Honestly, Lynn, I'm confused. How does someone dislike _you_?"

I shrugged. "Maybe he's crazy. I'm pretty awesome."

"Might want to tone down that ego there," Emily said.

"Or evil. I think it's because evil. You should dump him," Parvati said.

"Where is all this nonsense coming from?" Hannah asked.

"You are aware that we've all _always_ thought he was dick?" Parvati asked.

"Yes. I used to think he was too until I got to know him," Hannah said. Parvati groaned.

"Please don't tell us _again_ that we need to get to know him," she said.

"But you should. You'd all like him if you knew him like I do," Hannah said.

"You wouldn't like him if you knew him like _we_ knew him," Parvati mumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hannah asked.

"You know, I think I left some of my charms notes with Harry. I'm just gonna go get those," I said. I couldn't take it anymore. I despised being a teenager again. I hadn't heard a conversation like this since I'd graduated from school. I had to escape.

I walked out the room and went up to the boys' dorm and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" they all shouted.

I pushed the door open. There was no arguing about someone's girlfriend or anything like that. They were just listening to music, pretending to do homework, slacking off—my kind of people.

"Well, if it isn't Lynn," Dean said. "What brings you?"

"Escape from Hannah and Parvati who are having a debate about Draco Malfoy," I said.

They all groaned collectively.

"I'm still shocked that Hannah broke up with for that prat," Seamus said.

"Actually I think my sister dumped you because you were a dick and you cheated on her," Harry said.

"Oi, mate, no need to go dissecting the past now is there?" Seamus asked. "Besides, I reckon you'd rather I be with her than Malfoy."

"Anyone but Malfoy," Harry said.

"And what about you Miss Lynn? You taken a fancy to anyone?" Seamus asked.

I laughed. I was getting hit on my 15-year-old Irish boy. How cute.

"No, no one," I said.

"Really? Looked to me like you'd taken quite a shine to our buddy Harry here," Neville said.

Harry made a retching noise, and I turned to him, mouth agape.

"You find me that repulsive?" I asked.

"No! No! No! It's not like that," Harry said.

"You'll have to excuse Harry. He's rubbish with girls he fancies," Neville said.

"I don't fancy anyone—I mean except for Cho obviously," Harry said.

"All right, so if Harry's officially hands-off, what do you think about going to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday, Lynn?" Seamus asked.

"No!" Harry said jumping to his feet. Ron sat on his bed snickering. "You are not allowed."

"What d'you mean I'm not allowed?" Seamus asked. "She can go out with whoever she wants to."

"Yeah, well, not you, Seamus. Not you," Harry grabbing hold of my arm. "Let's get you back to your room, Lynn, and away from this disgrace to male species."

"Okay, goodnight, boys," I said. Harry pulled me from his room and into the hall.

"Can I ask why you've suddenly gone mental?" I asked.

"Yes. In a nutshell, just because you look like a hot 15-year-old Gryffindor girl, I know that you're actually a 23-year-old Hufflepuff woman who is like a mother to me," Harry said. "So stay away from Seamus and the rest of the pervy boys in this school."

"All right then, Harry. Don't get your wand in a knot," I said. "Do I look like a pedophile to you?"

"At the moment yes," Harry said. "You stay out of trouble too."


	30. A Day With Parvati Patil

When I woke up on the morning of Valentine's Day, my dorm was in a noisy uproar.

I sat up and Hannah was standing in the doorway arguing with Angelina Johnson about Quidditch while Hermione and Parvati helped Emily pick out an outfit.

When Hannah finally closed the door on Angelina she let out a sigh. She was obviously already dressed and ready to go out on her date with Draco—heels, and a tight fitting cable knit sweater.

Someone was going to freeze to death outside.

"Now, that's she gone, do you mind ditching Draco for an hour or so today?" Hermione asked.

"Uh, yes I do mind actually. Why?" Hannah asked.

"Because, you remember how I told you I came up with a plan about getting the truth out? Well, it has to happen today or it won't happen at all," Hermione said.

Hannah groaned. "Fine. But only for an hour."

"Good," Hermione said as there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Emily said.

The door was opened by Harry.

"Hello," he said.

"What's in the bag?" Hannah asked.

"Cards and letters for Lynn. I told them I was coming upstairs to the dorm and they're all like 'if you go by Hannah's room give this to Lynn' and sure enough I ended up with like 50 of them," he said.

"Really!" I asked excitedly taking the bag from Harry. "All of these are for me?"

"Yes. Apparently you're very well liked," Harry said.

"This is really nice, but I'm sorry I'm going to have to let all of these guys down," she said.

_Nymphadora Tonks, you heartbreaker._

"There's not one boy in this whole school who's captured your attention?" Parvati asked.

"No, not really," I said looking over the letters.

"And for good reason," Harry mumbled glancing over to me. I winked at him.

"What was that, Harry?" Emily asked.

"What? Nothing. Would you look at the time! Hannah, we'd better get going you know," he said.

"Fine, I'm coming," she said slipping on her shoes.

"Heels and a skirt. . . In winter?" Harry asked.

"Do you want me to change?" she asked in the same haughty tone she'd given Sirius during the summer. Obviously she did not like her wardrobe being questioned.

"No, no, do what you want," he said. "I just feel like since you invited me on this double date you should probably dress in a manner that kind of says 'I'm going on a date with my brother'."

"It sounds really wrong when you phrase it like that," Emily said.

"Harry, do you want me to change?" Hannah asked as pulled out a letter from the bag that was clearly not from any student.

"Oh, this owl is from Rem. . . My dad," I said quieting down.

Putting aside all the other letters, I opened Remus' letter.

_Dear Tonks,_

_Roses are red._

_Violets are blue._

_If I don't see you today_

_I'm probably going to murder your cousin._

_Also, I miss you. You should come back and be my Valentine today so Snuffles doesn't have to be. This will also very likely decrease the chance that I will strangle him—not that I much care whether I do or not at this point._

_Basically if you don't come back, the safety of your cousin can't be guaranteed if you don't come visit today._

_Happy Valetine's Day,_

_Remus_

I let out a slight giggle as I sat the letter aside.

"Right. . ." Emily said as she and Parvati moved to the door. You guys continue your conversation. Parvati and I are gonna hang out in the common room."

"I'll meet you in the common room," Harry said. He followed the girls out the room.

"So, what's Lupin write to you about?" Hannah asked.

"Nothing. Just order business," I replied not knowing how else to explain it.

"Order business makes you giggle?" Hannah asked.

"Well you've seen the people I work with," I pointed out.

"Right," Hannah replied, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, give me a break you two," I said. "Remus is just my friend."

"Sure he is," Hermione replied.

"You're both being completely ridiculous," I said. Valentine's Day had everyone with couples on the brain. That was the only explanation—well, at least it was Hermione's excuse for her unnecessary suspicion. Hannah's was probably that she was related to Sirius who also kept mentioning my phantom feeling for Remus.

"Well, I'm going," Hannah said. "See you at lunch, Hermione. Where will you be, Tonks?"

"I've been invited to hang out with Parvati so that's what I'm going to do," I said. I realized how dangerous it was to spend and extended period of time alone with Parvati, but I needed to keep tabs on Hannah and Harry and Parvati knew everything.

"Have fun," Hannah said.

I hoped I would.

888

"It's pretty obvious why so many girls don't like Hannah," Parvati said as we sat in the Three Broomstick by the window at the front of pub.

"I thought it was because _The Prophet_ and whatnot?" I asked.

Parvati shook her head as she had a sip of butterbeer. "They didn't like her before then. Now they just have a reason to justify their dislike. They actually don't like her because she's a bitch."

"No she's not," I said dismissively.

Parvati nodded. "Oh, but she is. I mean, she's not overtly bitchy, like you doesn't just walk up to people like 'hey, dude, fuck your couch'. No she's just. . . Hmm."

"What?" I asked.

"Think of it this way—you know how Hannah's really pretty?" Parvati asked. I nodded. "Well, she's always been pretty, but you know, she had _way_ more freckles and pigtails and used to be kind of humble. But then fourth year came 'round and suddenly she never wore her hair up anymore and she became very self-aware."

"Oh—you mean she's vain and self-absorbed," I said.

"And shallow," Parvati said. "It's not a coincidence that the only boys she's ever liked have been Draco, Seamus, and Oliver Wood."

"Who's Oliver Wood?" I asked.

"The old Quidditch Captain and a sex god captain. He graduated," Parvati said with a sigh. "He was _gorgeous_. I have pictures. Most of the girls in our house do."

That was a little weird.

"Anyway, she's always on about herself and everyone else is like 'shut up, no one cares'. Except Draco who is encouraging her, not that I'm surprised being that he is a dick," Parvati said. "Harry, however, is so unlike his sister which is pretty awesome."

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "Do you fancy Harry, Parvati?"

She laughed. "Harry is a lovely fellow, but he's _way_ too nice. He's probably _super_ clingy."

I laughed this time.

"But don't get me wrong, I would make-out with that boy in a heartbeat if the opportunity ever arose just to say I did," Parvati said. "Have you ever seen him with his shirt off?"

"Can't say I've had the pleasure," I said. This conversation was verging on uncomfortable.

"I feel bad for you," Parvati said patting me gently on the shoulder.

I shook my head and glanced out the window and saw something curious. Harry's girlfriend Cho was walking down the street, crying.

"Well what happened there?" Parvati asked. "Maybe Harry dumped her!"

"Why would he dump her?" I asked. "I thought he really liked her."

"Maybe he did, but I dunno, Harry's kind of a heartbreaker," Parvati said. "He started dating Kristen even though he liked Cho. And Ginny, Ron's little sister, was mad about him before he completely ignored her until she got over it. They never even talked before this year."

"Ouch," I said.

"Right. Oh—and then there's this rumor going around that he likes you. Seamus said when you were in his room the other night he got totally defensive of you and said he disallowed you from dating anyone," Parvati said.

"Oh, that! That was nothing! He was just being nice. Seamus was kind of being a creep is all," I said.

Parvati rolled her eyes. "Well if you're not into him and he's dumped Cho I am totally making a move."

"More power to you," I said. Just as Parvati said it, Harry and Hannah came walking down the street. Harry seemed to be ranting at Hannah angrily about something as they turned and walked into the pub.

"Looks like it's my lucky day," Parvati said giving me a wink. I followed her over to Harry and Hannah who had taken a seat with Luna, Hermione and a reporter, Rita Skeeter, who used to work for the Daily Prophet.

"Harry," Parvati said when we reached them, "what happened? Cho just ran by crying a bit ago."

"Still crying is she? That's all she does is cry, cry, cry," Harry said bitterly. If that wasn't the sound of a break up then I didn't know what one was.

". . . Are you okay?" I asked cautiously.

"Do I bloody look okay?" Harry asked.

Parvati and I exchanged glances. He needed a bit of a come down. I slid over to bar and ordered a shot of fire whiskey and brought it to him.

Harry took the shoot and drank it down quickly.

"How do you feel?" Hannah asked.

". . . Better. . . At least, my desire to strike Cho is gone," Harry said.

"Which is funny because you usually hear about alcohol having that opposite effect," Luna said.

"Well, Harry, if you need to talk, I'm here, and just so you know, I do have ulterior motives. I'm more than happy to be your angry, make-out rebound girl," Parvati said.

"Thanks Parvati. Perhaps I'll take you up on that," Harry said.

Parvati giggled and the two of us walked off.

"Have you no shame? He just broke up with his girlfriend," I said.

Parvati shrugged. "It's whatever. I owe her anyway. Harry took me to the Yule Ball last year and totally blew me off because he was too busy staring at her. I'll just call this revenge."


	31. Dumbledore's Lonely Hearts Club

_[A⁄N: I have had this sitting on my computer since April! What kind of horrible person am I?_]

Parvati had succeeded in ensnaring Harry and had abandoned me to go back to the castle with him. Hannah had invited me to tag along with her and Draco for the rest of the afternoon but I declined. I felt, for whatever reason, that leaving Hannah alone for today would be all right. I knew that given her track record and certain expectations set by Valentine's Day that I should be worried, but I wasn't.

Talking to her about Sirius was the kick in the head she'd needed to get her act together and I knew, supervised or not, she's keep herself in line, at least for now.

This thought in mind, I took the opportunity to take Remus up on his suggestion from his letter and pop round to Grimmauld Place for the rest of the day, until I had to return to Hogwarts and be Lynn again.

I arrived at Grimmauld, firmly back in my normal 22-year-old body, prepared to sit around with Sirius and Remus like I did before I was given the task of being 15-years-old.

I took care not to hurt myself on the troll leg umbrella stand and managed to get into the kitchen almost silently, except for the sound of me opening the kitchen door.

As expected, my two steadfast companions were sitting at the kitchen table; they looked up when they saw me.

"Tonks, good thing you're here, I was about five seconds away from murdering your cousin," Remus said.

"He's serious, you know. He said he'd decided on which utensil he was going to stab me to death with," Sirius said.

"I decided I was going to beat him to death with a giant, metal spoon. It would be long and tedious, but I'd be able to repay him for all the torture he's put me through," Remus said.

"That sounds fair," I said, sitting down at the table with them. "What have you been up today, aside from plotting to murder one another?"

"Not much. Molly made us cupcakes and we ate all of them," Sirius said.

"Except for the one you threw at me," Remus said.

"Which prompted him to write a letter to you forewarning you of my possible murder," Sirius said. "Then I speculated over what trouble Hannah and Harry were getting into today and now we're reminiscing about Valentine's Day past. Remus was just reminding me of his date with Lily in fifth year."

"We spent it hiding from James who was on a date with Janessa which he was only on because Janessa went out with him to distract him from the fact that I was there with Lily," Remus said.

"That sounds elaborate," I said. "And what were you doing, Sirius?"

"Helping him, but then I made up with my girlfriend, Veronica," Sirius said with a sigh.

"This is the girl you got pregnant?" I asked.

"Yep," Sirius said. "We broke up again like a week later."

"And got back together and broke up and got back together and so on," Remus said. "They weren't in a steady relationship until seventh year."

"Well, at least I wasn't hiding my girlfriend from James for five months," Sirius said.

"It all worked out didn't it? They got married, we've got Harry and Hannah now," Remus said.

Sirius groaned. "What is my goddaughter doing today?"

"She's behaving. She went on a double with Harry and his girlfriend, Cho, although, honestly, I'd be more concerned about Harry today," I said. "I was spending the day with a girl, Parvati, and we were sitting in the Three Broomsticks and she's going on about how as soon as Harry's single again she was going to try to hook up with him."

"Really? Parvati fancies Harry?" Remus asked.

"No. She said he's way too nice and probably super clingy, but if the opportunity ever came up she'd try to make out with him just to say she did. She then asked me if I had ever seen Harry without his shirt on," I said.

Sirius and Remus laughed.

"That's perfect," Sirius said.

"Apparently, Harry is a heartbreaker. There was his girlfriend Kristen and now Cho, and apparently even our little Ginny was mad about him until recently," I said.

"Ginny? Get outta town," Sirius said. "But they're so tight."

"That's what my initial thought was, but evidently Harry did his best to avoid Ginny at all cost until she got over him," I said.

"Cold blooded," Remus said.

"Oh, I feel 15 again, gossiping about what they're all up to. Go on, tell me more," Sirius said excitedly.

"Well, at the moment, I think he's broken up with Cho although we don't have any actual confirmation on that from Harry," I said.

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"He won't say. Parvati and I saw Cho walking down the street, crying her eyes out," I said. "Five minutes later, Harry and Hannah show up in the pub and Harry just starts bitching about how all she does is cry and cry and cry. He was furious. Then he had a shot of firewhiskey, had a chat with Hannah, Hermione, Luna, and some woman, and then he ran off with Parvati who openly offered to be his rebound girl."

Sirius nodded. "What an inspiration Harry must be."

"Apparently," I said.

"And what has Hannah done?" Sirius asked. "Nothing, really?"

"Not that I saw. When I left she and Draco weren't doing anything more than holding hands strolling carefree through Hogsmeade," I said. "I think she's finally got some sense. You should write to her."

Sirius sighed. "Don't think so yet. She might just be behaving because it's Valentine's Day and she's trying to get you to leave."

I shrugged. "Even so, I don't much care for Draco. He's very. . . Evil. I don't want to say it, but the boy is really just plain evil. The way he talks to people and the way he says things about other people. He's just like his father and I wouldn't know what Hannah sees in him except that he's a completely different person when he's with her. The boy can act."

"Different how?" Sirius asked.

"Well one minute he's off telling Hermione she's a mudbloob, but put Hannah in the same room with Hermione and Draco and suddenly he's just dismissive of Hermione as opposed to cruel," Tonks said.

"And no one has told Hannah that he's an awful human being?" Remus asked.

"Parvati hints at it pretty heavily all of the time to the point where it actually irritates Hannah and they get into verbal altercations," I said. "But the truth of the matter is that they're all terrified of how things will go if she sees Draco for how he really is. They don't want her to get hurt and no one wants to be the one responsible for totally breaking her heart. They hope that she will eventually outgrow him."

"He's going to screw up before that happens," Sirius said.

I let out a sigh. "I think she really might love him."

"Oh, don't say that," Sirius said.

"Honestly, I don't see them together much, but you can hear it in her voice when she talks about him or the way she looks at him when she sees him in class," I said. "I'm genuinely just as terrified as the rest of them that she's going to end up a mess because of him. I know they tell you that heartbreak is just a natural part of life, but. . . It's Hannah. I don't want to see her get hurt."

"Just more things I have to worry about," Sirius said. "Why don't I ever just hear good news about Hannah? There's always bad news tacked on the end of everything she does."

"Just be happy that she's not a criminal or a drug addict," Remus said.

"That's all I can do at this point," he said.

"The good news is that Ron and Hermione are doing great," I said.

Remus chuckled. "Happy to hear it."

"Do you realize that we've spent the last 10 minutes talking about the love lives of teenagers?" Sirius asked.

"We really are pathetic," Remus laughed.

"We're not that pathetic. I mean, Sirius you can't exactly leave the house, my last boyfriend put me in the hospital a few months ago so I'm not exactly motivated to get out there and find somebody new, and Remus. . ." I paused for a moment.

"Werewolf," he said.

"Oh, who cares that you're a werewolf," Sirius said.

"Yeah, my ex-boyfriend was a werewolf," I said.

"You didn't know he was a werewolf and he almost killed you," Remus said.

I scoffed. "That's because he was also a death eater. But you wouldn't lock me inside of a house with you during the full moon without a wolfsbane potion with the intent to kill me if I was your girlfriend would you?"

". . . No," Remus said.

"There you go," I said. "No go find yourself a woman."

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, Tonks, but most people, as it turns out, aren't quite as understanding of it as you," Remus said.

"Janessa was. Tell me what happened there again," Sirius said.

"When it comes down to it, I simply don't want to burden any-."

"Remus John Lupin, you listen to me right now," I said cutting him off, "if someone genuinely cares and loves you they will not ever look at you as a burden and don't you dare think of yourself that way."

"All right, Tonks. You tell him," Sirius said getting up.

"And where are you going?" I asked him.

"To find some parchment and a quill so I can write a letter to Harry," he said. "I shall return."

Sirius walked out of the kitchen and went upstairs leaving Remus and me alone in the kitchen. For whatever reason, there was an air of awkwardness to the room now. I tapped my fingers gently on the table and stared at their massacred chessboard.

"I meant it you know," I finally said. "Even if you don't think you deserve to be loved, you do. Even if you're a werewolf and it's stupid to think otherwise."

"I'm happy to hear you feel that way," he said.

"You shouldn't resign yourself to being alone forever. Crazy people like Sirius, they should accept being alone forever because we're the only ones who're going to be willing to put up with him," I joked. Remus chuckled. "Now if I ever hear you talking like that again I'll be forced to strike you. Just a head's up."

"Your threat is duly noted," Remus said.

Sirius returned to the kitchen, his writing equipment in hand.

"Now what should I start with?" he asked, dipping his quill into his ink.

"It should start, 'Dear Hannah,'" I said.

Sirius frowned at me. "I am not talking to her."

"Oh, don't be such a child. She's been on her best behavior and she misses you and she's so sorry. You're going to make her miserable," I said.

"Well she should be miserable. She probably hasn't considered how her bad decisions make me feel," Sirius said.

"They make all of us feel like tearing out our hair, but you're the only one taking it so horribly," I said. "She's already having a hard time of it at school and dealing with Voldemort and whatnot. Do you think she's handling being ignored by someone she loves well?"

"I will deal with her later. Right now even thinking about it makes me so cross I can't see straight," Sirius said jotting down his letter for Harry.

"Do you remember in the summer when she said she was miserable because you played favorites with Harry?" I asked. "Don't you think she was maybe onto something with that?"

Sirius let out a sigh and sat his quill down.

"Tonks, I know you don't understand-."

"I understand perfectly well. What you don't understand is Hannah. She's already got Dumbledore ignoring her except to scold her when she gets into trouble. And all of her friends are repeatedly going in on her for dating this horrible boy that nobody likes, and she's getting her name splashed across the newspapers on a daily basis because people think she's a crazy liar. Not to mention the fact that kids in school are cruel and mean and between the newspapers and what she gets into with Draco they are totally unforgiving. And now she's got you ignoring her. The only person that isn't scolding her or calling her a liar or being awful to her is Draco. It's no wonder she's gotten into trouble with him," I said.

Sirius sighed. "So you're saying that in some really weird way that her trouble with Malfoy is _my _fault?"

"I think she's saying that Hannah is a 15-year-old girl like any other who just wants love and attention and Malfoy has been her only consistent source of it," Remus chimed in.

"I know that Hannah can be an idiot at the best of times, but even I know she wouldn't be stupid enough to believe that the only person who really loves her is Draco Malfoy," Sirius said dismissively.

I sighed. "I think you're forgetting how dumb 15-year-old girls can be."

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe, for once, I'd like to believe that she's better than that."

"Perhaps she is, but she won't believe that if nobody ever tells her. I mean, if you don't tell her. Yours is the only approval she's seeking right now," I said.

Sirius shrugged.


	32. How to Sexually Objectify Harry Potter

_[A_⁄_N: Note to self: Post updates immediately after they are written so they don't sit on my computer for two months. Yes, this is a good idea.]_

I arrived back at Hogwarts just before anyone noticed I was missing. I entered my dorm to find Hannah and Emily laughing and giggling and carrying on like crazy. Hermione and Parvati also seemed to be in good spirits.

"Well I see that you lot enjoyed the rest of your Valentine's Day," I said.

"Lynn, where have you been? We've been looking for you," Emily said.

"Yeah, I had to tell you that I totally hooked up with Harry Potter. Bitches are so gonna hate me now, but I don't care," Parvati said with a little dance.

"My day was rather uneventful although I enjoyed myself, right up until I walked in and found Harry feeling up my roommate," Hannah said lightly.

"Harry Potter's hands-."

"Stop talking about it. Please, don't tell me anymore about my brother. I just could not care less," Hannah said.

"Besides, Emily's had a better day than all of us," Hermione said.

Emily hopped up to her feet and held her left hand out. I examined and lo, there on her ring finger was a small, gold engagement ring.

"You're getting married?" I asked.

"Yes I am. Fred and I are getting married. Not until next year some time, but yes we are," Emily said dancing around.

"Well, congratulations," I said, wishing I could be at Grimmauld to see Molly getting the letter telling her that her son had proposed to his girlfriend.

"Hannah'll be next," Parvati said with a wink.

"Bitch, please," Hannah said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not even sure that I love Draco. I am not _even_ thinking about marrying him."

"Harry would probably weep tears of joy if he heard you say that," I said.

"He so would," Hannah agreed. "Anyway, after that speech he gave I'm jealous that Emily gets to marry Fred."

"Oh, that speech," Emily swooned, sitting down on Hannah's lap and resting her head on her shoulder. "I never knew Fred had such a way with words."

"I'm sorry I missed it," Parvati said. "I was too busy making out with Harry Potter and having all of my dreams come true."

"You're speaking very highly of this experience," Emily laughed.

"Em, you don't get it. You know you have expectations when you kiss someone or anything like that, and I set mine pretty high for Harry, but if he didn't just blow them all out of the water," Parvati said. "God bless Harry Potter and that tongue of his." 

"Stop talking about my brother like that," Hannah said. "He's supposed to be the decent one, I'm not. Do not tarnish the way I look at my brother. Do not take him down from my pedestal."

"Oh, Sweetheart, I'm putting him up on pedestal much higher than the one you've got him on," Parvati said. "Say, doesn't your brother wear a size 12 shoe?"

"Fuck you, Parvati, and you stay away from my brother's penis," Hannah said firmly.

"All right then." We looked to the door and Harry and Ron were standing in the doorway.

"Hello, Harry Potter," Parvati said with a wink.

"Hey Parvati," Harry said nonchalantly. "How're you, Emily?"

"Fan-fucking-tastic," Emily said.

"Oh, and Lynn, you're back," Ron said. "Where'd you disappear off to?"

"Library," I lied.

"I can't believe you had all these boys throwing themselves at you and you chose to spend it alone in the library," Parvati said.

"Well I had plans, but someone ditched me to make out with Harry Potter with all afternoon," I said.

"Oh, I didn't mean to steal her from you. I wasn't expecting my ex-girlfriend to suddenly turn into a psychopath is all," Harry said.

"Well good riddance to her. I told you last year she'd be nothing but trouble," Hannah said.

"I'm always telling you Malfoy is nothing but trouble and look at what you've gotten yourself into," Harry said.

"Yeah, but Draco's the good kind of trouble. Not the kind that kind doesn't shut up about her dead ex-boyfriend and then throws coffee on me," Hannah said.

Harry glared at Hannah and she patted Emily triumphantly on the head.

"Well, I'm going to slip out now before this room becomes even more uncomfortable," Ron said. "Congratulations, Emily. Goodnight, Hermione."

"Goodnight, Ron," Hermione replied.

"Don't forget truth-or-dare after breakfast!" Parvati called out.

"Truth or dare?" I asked.

"Oh, Lynn, you've never played with us before, have you? You're in for a treat. Maybe Harry will take his shirt off again," Parvati said.

"I will murder you in your sleep!" Hannah cried out.

888

On the grounds the next morning, it was unseasonably warm for February, and so we all gathered there for a very large game of truth-or-dare. From what the children had told me at Christmas, these games were usually pretty out there.

It started off as a usual game would—Kassia admitting (with some difficulty) that she liked Draco's best friend, Blaise; Draco putting peanut butter and jelly under his armpits and making a sandwich from it, but then I commented, and I shouldn't have.

"You're all crazy," I said, as Draco finished eating his peanut butter, jelly and armpit sandwich.

"Glad you think so, Lynn. . . Truth or dare," Draco asked, patting me on the back.

"Oh. . . Uh. . . I uh. . . Dare," I said reluctantly. All I could hope was that I didn't drown in the madness like the rest of them.

"All right, this should be perfect for you, Little Miss Innocent," Draco said. "I dare you to unbutton Potter's shirt with your teeth."

"Pardon me?" I asked.

"Unbutton. Harry. Potter's. Shirt. With. Your. Teeth," Draco repeated.

I looked over to Harry who was looking around at everyone who knew that I was in fact Tonks, and not Lynn. I couldn't unbutton Harry's shirt with my teeth. He was like my kid almost. It was horrible and wrong. But everyone had been talking about how my punishment would be Ginny's Bat Bogey Hex and almost nothing was worse than facing that down and she'd even once put Remus in the hospital from it.

"Just do it, T. . . Lynn. Ginny's hex is not worth it," George assured me.

I let out a sigh and sucked it up. I couldn't blow my cover, that would be horribly bad and lots of people would go to prison. I just had to do it. I crawled over to Harry and let out a deep breath. I inched closer and closer and closer and—

"I can't do this," I said. It was immoral. It was wrong.

"Then Weasley will have to destroy you," Draco said. I looked back at Harry.

"I am never going to live this down," I said. He knew exactly what I meant, that as soon as word got back to Sirius about this I would never ever stop hearing about it.

I took a deep breath and took the first button with my teeth and undid it.

"This is almost painful to watch," George said.

"Oh, but the stories we'll tell," Fred said.

I could hear them all snickering away in the background.

"You're working awful fast there, Lynn," Hannah teased.

"Maybe she's experienced," Draco said as I undid the last button.

I was in no mood for this.

"We all know you two are," I said.

Everyone snickered as Hannah nodded, glaring in my direction as if to say touché.

"So now it's my turn is it?" I asked. "I'll have to make this memorable since it's my first time playing."

"You already have," Harry grumbled as he brought his hands up to his shirt.

"Hey, whoa, Harry, what are you doing?" Parvati asked.

"Closing my shirt back," he answered.

"Why?" Padma asked.

"The view is nice and you won't take that away from me," Melanie said.

"All right. . . Shirt stays open," Harry said. This was followed by a lot of head nods from random girls in the group. Sirius would shed a tear of pride if he saw this.

"Hmm. . . Neville, your turn buddy. Truth or dare," I said.

After a brief pause, Neville chose dare.

"I dare you," I started, rummaging through the small bag of items that had been brought for the game and pulled out a packet of sugar. Took a book and poured it out. "I dare you to snort a line of sugar."

"Brilliant," Ron laughed.

Snorting sugar was harmless as far as I knew. It dissolved and wasn't an actual drug.

Neville took the book and adjusted it accordingly before snorting it, causing everyone to fall out into a fit of giggles.

"It burns!" Neville said, his nose red and his eyes watery. "Seamus, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Seamus answered.

"Who's the hottest chick in the group?" Neville asked. "I think my nose is starting to bleed."

"Hmm. . . Lynn. Yeah, Lynn is the hottest," Seamus said.

"Thanks," I said with a wink. I may not have been in my actual body but I would take self-esteem points where ever I could get them.

For a while things were uneventful, Pansy had her face made into a clown by Draco and retaliated by daring Hannah to give a speech about how sexy she thought Dumbledore was at the end of the game, Luna sat on Neville's lap, and George proclaimed that he had made love to a chipmunk for laughs. Then it was Dean's turn.

"Ginny, truth or dare?" he asked.

"Dare me," she said sweetly.

"I dare you to French Hannah," Dean said.

"Not this bit again," Hannah mumbled.

"I can't very well hex myself so I have to do this," Ginny said. "Although, yes, Dean, this is getting old."

"I disagree," Seamus and Dean said in unison.

After being threatened by Harry and the Weasley boys, Ginny came and sat across from Hannah.

I wanted to look away, but I could not. Ginny leaned forward, cupping Hannah's face in her hands and kissed her. It lasted a few long seconds before they pulled away from each other. Ginny went back to her seat and Draco sat there gawking at Hannah.

"What?" she asked.

"You had another girl's tongue in your mouth," he said.

"And?" she asked.

Draco shook his head. "Just thought I'd share that with you."

Things didn't stop there for the Potters, at least not for Harry. Angelina dared Adrian to kiss Harry, Seamus, George, and Neville and rank their kisses from best to worst (Neville won). This was followed up by Kristen being dared to whisper something dirty into Harry's ear. And then there was the cherry on top of all of the Harry Potter abuse when it got to Jasmine's turn.

Fred tossed Harry a can of whipped cream.

"Okay, wait a second. . . First you have Lynn unbutton my shirt with her teeth, which you take pictures of and then convince me to keep my shirt open, then you make Adrian kiss me, have Kristen whisper something _extremely_ dirty in my ear and now you're tossing me a can of whipped cream. What am I supposed to think?" Harry asked

"That Jasmine is supposed to eat whipped cream off the side of your face," Fred said nonchalantly.

Harry sighed and opened the whipped cream, spraying some onto the side of his face. "Get it over with."

After this, Harry raised his hand.

"New rule. Harry Potter is no longer allowed to be used as a sexual object," Harry said.

The game drew to a close when we reached Hermione's turn.

"Besides Ron, who in this group have you ever made out with?" Parvati asked.

Hermione looked around cautiously.

"You've made out with other people besides Ron and Viktor?" Hannah asked.

"Only one person and it was third year. We only did it because were so convinced that we liked each other and after we made out it was weird and then we realized we didn't like each other and that we'd made out for no reason," Hermione said. "Suffice it to say, I was lucky my first kiss wasn't a bad one."

"Who was it?" Ron asked.

Hermione sighed. "Harry."

"You made out with Harry?" Ron and Hannah practically shouted.

"Once at the beginning of third year and then it never happened again," Hermione said.

"Oh, my God," Hannah said. She looked as though her heart might give out from the sheer volume of her friends that had made out with her brother.

"Well, Ron, I guess since you're the last person, truth or dare," Hermione said.

"Truth," he said.

". . . What would you do for a Klondike bar?" Hermione asked.

Ron paused before answering.

"Anything you ask me to," Ron said with a wink.

888

_Hello boys,_

_Things today have been just weird. Valentine's Day was, as you recall, quite benign, but today was a bit out of control. There's a lot of peer pressure here, threatening to be cursed and what not and truthfully, I fell into the madness during a game of truth or dare which can only be talked about in person because I really have no words for how I feel after this. Only that someone should really speak to the Gryffindor's about using Harry as a sexual object. It's both impressive and horrifying._

_Tonks_

I sent the letter off with the owl and started down from the owlry when I bumped into Hannah.

"And who are you writing to today?" I asked her.

"Another letter to Snuffles. I'm sure he got my last one, but just to be sure I'm sending another along in the hopes that maybe I can actually coax him into speaking to me," she said. "You told him that-."

"You've been incredibly well behaved since I showed up and that you're sorry and that you've gotten everything together," I said. "I told him all of that, but he's still very upset with you."

Hannah sighed, tying a letter to the leg of an owl.

"Maybe he just hates me now," she said.

"Sweetheart, I know for a fact that's not the case," I said.

Hannah shrugged and sent the owl out of the window.

"He's such an idiot. How can he just ignore me like this," Hannah said. "I know I have to earn back his trust but he can still at least pretend that he loves me. What the hell am I trying so hard for if he's not going to care?"

"He does care," I promised her.

Hannah headed toward the steps of the owlry.

"He's got a funny way of showing it," she said going down them.


End file.
